Elements loads fine but will not open files!

This issue started with Elements 11; one day it was working fine, the next day I couldn't get it to open any files.  I cleared preferences and uninstalled/reinstalled; nothing worked.  I thought it might be having issues since it was an older product, so I downloaded Elements 15.  It worked fine yesterday when I installed it.  Now today - same issue that Elements 11 was having!!!!  I got it to open one file after trying many times, but then I couldn't use any of the tools on it - I highlighted an area to crop, clicked crop, nothing happens.  I have seen issues like this posted before but there haven't been any resolutions posted.  This is very frustrating having spent this money on a product that simply won't work!  Does anyone have a fix for this?