Problem retrieving Gnucash data

[Jennifer Peckham]

Greetings,

I downloaded Gnucash in August of 2014 after doing a web search for free
accounting software.  At some point in recent weeks, I started experiencing
major problems with my laptop (I have Windows 7) whenever I went online --
I would get a ton of ad popups and other messages that interfered with my
ability to use the web.

I finally took my computer to a repairman yesterday who cleaned up my
computer and got it running properly again.  He identified the last "safe"
date on my computer as August 7, 2014.  I don't know when I installed
Gnucash, except I see that the shortcut was put on my desktop on August 14,
2014.

Anyway, as part of his cleanup process, apparently he deleted Gnucash,
because when I went to open a saved Gnucash file, it won't open and wants
me to identify the proper program for opening it.  I was going to reinstall
Gnucash, but my Avast anti-virus program cautions me about installing this
program.

I'm very nervous that Gnucash is what caused my computer problems recently
and am nervous about reinstalling it.  However, I have some important
business data saved as a Gnucash file that I need to retrieve.

Any guidance you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Jennifer Peckham