For sometime when I click on the Excel icon in the Taskbar or with any file, I first get the message, “Unable to Read File.” When I click OK, I get this same message each time:
“Excel cannot open the file ‘~$Credit Card Template.xltx’ because the file format or the file extension is not valid. Verify that the file has not been corrupted and that the file extension matches the format of the file.”
I click OK and the file I want opens. However, no file with "Credit Card Template" in its name now exists on my Windows 7 PC. Some time ago, there was either an xls and/or xlsx file with that name but it/they are long gone.

I first ran the Repair procedure on MS Office. I ran the MS Security Scanner program and it reported no problems. Finally I completely uninstalled Office 2010 and reinstalled it – to no avail.

Thankfully, I do get to my Excel files. But it requires two additional clicks that are annoying.

Any suggestions?