When you install Google Desktop it also installs some Office addins - in particular, it installs something called "Google Desktop Office Addin".
It turns out this is EVIL.
For a long while now I have had this ultra annoying problem with Excel - after a save, it breaks the Undo Redo - but not in a manageable way (eg just not work) - it sort of half works. It basically remembers the last two things to Undo, but it does NOT remember how to Redo the last one - so it can Undo twice, but only Redo once.
When I work on a spreadsheet I save very regularly, and then go look at something on the sheet, and I do a quick Undo Redo to both see what I last changed, and to get back to the tab I was working on, to continue editing.
However this was no longer working, because I would do Undo Redo after a save and IT DIDNT DO THE REDO. So the result was that I was losing changes, until I realised it was broken.
The other problem was speed. I have quite a large spreadsheet I use daily, and it was taking forever to do things like select sets of lines - in particular if I wanted to for example clear a load of lines, I would be shift-selecting and paging up to select them - with each successive extension to the selection it got slower, so after about 5 pages it was taking 3+ seconds per extra page.
This performance problem also affected large inserts of lines and other things involving lots of lines.
I happened to notice that my wifes computer didn't have this same problem (even on the same sheet) so I investigated. They were nearly identical, but I spotted that I had the Google Addin.
I disabled the Addin (Excel Options / Add-Ins, go to the bottom and choose Manage Com Add-Ins, and uncheck the Google one.
Magically it fixed my Excel problems. I have enabled and disabled it a few times to check, and it really was this poxy addin. I then did some searching and a few other people have also had problems with the Addin - but it isn't generally known.
This Addin will come whenever you install Google Desktop, so beware.
I have uninstalled Google Desktop, as if they can screw up Office so badly, maybe its responsible for some of my other problems that I have been blaming on Windows...
Note that this problem with the Addin was first reported back in 2007, so after 3 years, Google have still not fixed it - unbelievable - or Google quietly trying to disrupt Microsoft for their own competetive advantage - or is that too cynical and its really just a typical case of developer incompetence...
