Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

It was working fine until today, when apparently Windows downloaded some crap update. I tried to save what I had written, it crashed, there were NO fancy formatting things or images, when I opened again the doc was retrieved blank. This happened whether I used Save or Save as. Also when I tried to open an existing document it crashed immediately. So, I uninstalled, downloaded again and reinstalled and the same thing happened. Could not find something like this on the forum, and NEED to write a document. Help!!!

Welcome to the forums
Since it was working before the Windows update, but now isn't, it seems obvious that the Windows update is at fault.
I'm going to suggest that you remove that update, then check if OpenOffice works again properly. If it does, then you need to keep that update from installing.

I already did that. No change, even though it has not been re-added. In the interim I am having to use GoogleDocs but would really like to get OO working again.

Start Windows in Safe Mode, and try OO in that mode.

Please remind me ofhow to start in safe mode. Forgot which F key to hit.

It is years since I made any heavy use of Windows; at that time Safe Mode was obtained by pressing F8 key when computer indicated it was "starting windows".