Thanks for your support BM.
Not going in order of what you've said. I have Sumatra (didn't realise until I played with it that it's for more than just PDF's) and it looks good, I mean simple enough to me so that's what I'm using now. But the whole issue is still bugging me (excuse the pun!), beyond belief, being one of those who has constantly asked "why" way past my terrible twos!!!
Also, I do check anything I DL from a third party site with my AV virus scanner before openong the file. Are you saying that I should use something else too? Aren't Malwarebytes and Spybot search & destroy two versions of the same thing? So you check with your AV and then these two apps also?
Lastly, the link you provided is where I got the new file to DL and when I open properties there is no option to choose 64bit. But even if that was the case, why change all of a sudden after years of use as it was? Following your prompt though, I looked at my update log and there
was a Windows Defender automatic update on friday 20th, which may be where it stemmed from... I can't remember which day was the last one when the app worked.
Now
the thing is,
this opens up a whole new discussion for me. When I click the details for the update, it tells me
"Install this update to revise the definition files used to detect spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Once you have installed this item, it cannot be removed."
There's a Microsoft link to find out more information which when I click it, it tells me
"We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found.
The URL may be misspelled or the page you're looking for is no longer available."
And then there's also a link for help and support and when I click that , it tells me
"Protect your PC
Applies to: Windows 10". Also "Last Updated: Nov 30, 2017".
... Well, I'm on 7 not 10... why doesn't it know that when my laptop was bought pre-installed and was registered yada yada yada...?
So basically, I can't find out anything about this update that may (or may not) have ruined my cool reader despite that fact that there is a link for me to do so???
