Fix: Error when double clicking an Excel file: Windows cannot find the file

Products by Dave Naffziger on December 17, 2007 at 12:14 pm

If you don’t have this error, don’t bother reading this post. It took some time to find a fix and my hope that this post will help others in the future.

Somehow my Excel installation got into a funky state where I had problems opening files from anywhere but inside Excel.

Firefox gave me this error message when I tried to open an excel file off an Excel link:

associated helper application does not exist

Windows explorer gave me this error message when I doubleclicked the file from anywhere (desktop, windows explorer, etc.):

Windows cannot find ‘path\file’

In both of these cases, Excel would open but no file would load. It took a bit of digging, but this blog post put me on to the solution - I had to unregister and regregister Excel.

The original post was originally written for Excel 2003. If you’re running 2008, here are the steps you need to follow:

  1. In Excel, click the Microsoft Office Button (in the top left), click Excel Options (at the bottom of the menu box on the right), click the Advanced category, and then under the General section, clear the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box.
  2. In Windows, open a command prompt: Start > Run will get you the run dialog box. Then enter “cmd”
  3. Navigate to the directory of your Excel installation. On my machine that is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12
  4. Enter this command: excel.exe /unregserver
  5. then enter this command: excel.exe /regserver

I would expect that a similar fix would work if Word, Powerpoint or other Office programs end up in a similar state.

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76 Comments »

  1. MIke S — December 27, 2007 @ 3:04 pm

    Holy Sh*& thank you so much I have been trying to get this fixed for weeks, This is what i needed thanks.!!!!!!!!!

  2. Dave — January 6, 2008 @ 4:41 pm

    I have this same problem with Excel 97 – any specific way to fix it for my version?

  3. Dave Naffziger — January 6, 2008 @ 4:50 pm

    I suspect that the Excel 97 would have similar settings. Try to find the Excel Options menu and look for the Dynamic Data Exchange option. The unreg/reg server commands are probably the same.

  4. Anon — January 8, 2008 @ 1:08 am

    I don’t think the unregserver/regserver are necessary. The ignore DDE just needs to be unchecked.

  5. Dan — January 16, 2008 @ 1:02 pm

    I can’t tell you how much this has been annoying me. FINALLY a solution! I really appreciate that you wrote it up. I’ve been ignoring the problem figuring one day I would actually look for a solution… then one search and your blog was the first hit…

    Thanks again!

  6. Aaron — January 24, 2008 @ 4:17 pm

    I’ve had this problem as well but the DDE check box re-checks itself after a few days. I haven’t done the command line thing, does that have anything to do with the DDE box checking itself again?

  7. Dave Naffziger — January 24, 2008 @ 4:24 pm

    Aaron, I think that may be why you need to run the command line commands (but I’m not certain).

  8. dedan — January 30, 2008 @ 4:14 am

    To fix this go into your File Explorer: My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> File Type. Find XLS and select it, then click advanced button. Now Select the “Open” Action and choose Edit button. Now this is the trick, shutoff DDE by unchecking it. Then edit the end of the action. The end should be something like this (note the “%1″) and note there must be a space between the /e and the first quote.

    “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE” /e “%1″

    It works. Thank you very much Dave!!!

  9. Eddie — March 23, 2008 @ 5:03 pm

    Dave and Dedan,

    Thank you so much, I have been struggling with the word as I have not been able to open word. I followed dedan instructions , but word and not excel and it worked.
    Well done!

  10. Mario — April 9, 2008 @ 8:06 am

    It worked for me too.
    Thanks

  11. wayne — April 27, 2008 @ 9:47 pm

    Thanks! I’ve been wondering wtf was going on!

  12. POS — May 26, 2008 @ 8:07 am

    Also worked for Corel Draw files…… THANKS A LOT, was driving me crazy..

  13. thommango — June 17, 2008 @ 2:34 am

    Thanks for the fix. Now, why does this problem start in the first place? I did install a download manager for firefox before I started having this problem. I wonder if that’s related?

  14. Coyote — July 24, 2008 @ 1:57 pm

    Thank you so much! This worked perfectly!

    BTW, this started happening to me after Vista automatically installed updates overnight & rebooted, without my consent. Nice.

  15. phil hutch — August 14, 2008 @ 12:32 pm

    Excellent fix many thanks

  16. Dan — August 15, 2008 @ 2:35 pm

    You are my hero… for real.

  17. Allan — August 27, 2008 @ 8:53 pm

    Thanks alot!

  18. Bonnie — September 8, 2008 @ 10:07 am

    Thank you very very much. Such an annoying problem to have, thank you for the time to share your solution.

  19. Dennis O'Connor — September 28, 2008 @ 7:31 am

    Dave,

    Thanks so much for posting the solution to this problem. I never would have figured it out on my own–you saved me a lot of time (and annoyance). I appreciate your help.

  20. luo — October 1, 2008 @ 6:45 pm

    TQ very much! It worked!(Don’t forget to shutoff the DDE!!!)

  21. dude — October 12, 2008 @ 11:44 am

    Thx so much, i think i would have never figured this out on my own without your i help. I was two inches away from reinstalling the entire thing. Thx so much!

  22. Stephen Raisz — October 14, 2008 @ 11:24 am

    My thanks as well. I thought reinstalling would fix this, but it didn’t. Your fix worked. Thanks much.

  23. Penny — October 30, 2008 @ 5:35 am

    Did not work for me – Office 2007 (I’m running Vista tho’.) I can open a file from within Excel, but not from my documents folder or anywhere else. I think it was one of those automatic Vista downloads that Microsoft prefers to call updates.

  24. Penny — October 30, 2008 @ 5:40 am

    Fixed

    This suggestion (smilar to above but specific to 2007) from the following web site:
    “http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-1790606.php”

    To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
    1. In Microsoft Office Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Excel Options.
    2. Click Advanced, and then click to clear the Ignore other applications check box in the General area.
    3. Click OK.
    1. In Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or earlier versions of Excel click Options, on the Tools menu.
    2. Click the General tab.
    3. Click to clear the Ignore other applications check box, and then click OK.
    After you do this, you should be able to open workbooks by double-clicking them in Windows Explorer.

    Thanks very much!

  25. Scott — October 30, 2008 @ 8:42 am

    Thanks! This saved me so much time!

  26. ABrill — November 11, 2008 @ 9:52 am

    Wow, I can’t believe this is finally fixed. Thanks!

  27. emily — December 1, 2008 @ 11:23 am

    Thanks for posting this. It’s definitely a keeper!

  28. Sharmilee — December 2, 2008 @ 8:26 pm

    Is anyone facing the same problem with Word? The DDE box option is not there in Word 2007….Any suggestions would be appreciated

  29. argenox — December 4, 2008 @ 8:38 am

    It did not work so far for me, I am running Office 2003 in windows Vista and I get stuck following the instruction right after folder options. Please help

  30. sindbad — December 11, 2008 @ 2:38 am

    God bless you!

  31. Anonymous — December 16, 2008 @ 8:52 am

    Thank you!!!!!

  32. Anonymous — December 17, 2008 @ 12:30 pm

    Thanks…

  33. tal sapir — December 18, 2008 @ 7:24 am

    Thank you so much! it resolved the problem for me.

  34. Tim Foreman — December 23, 2008 @ 4:48 am

    Great! It also worked for me!

  35. Dan Sipma — January 6, 2009 @ 3:03 am

    Whew, annoying problem resolved. Worked wonders for me in Word

  36. ewout — January 6, 2009 @ 8:24 am

    super, flawless solution,

    thanks

  37. Tim — January 13, 2009 @ 11:31 am

    This is great – been bugging me for ages. Many Thanks.

  38. Raul — January 29, 2009 @ 2:36 am

    It worked for me, I was about to format my PC because of this issue…

    Normally this a process I don't think twice before doing it because of earlier Vista problems…
    But this last month I switched to a new laptop which was replaced 3 times already because of a bad batch issue.
    I'm not going to make a bad publicity because I love laptop #4.
    It works flawless and I received a SSD drive upgrade :)

    Thanks, for writting this solution. For the record I'm running Vista Ultimate x64 and Office 2007

  39. Dave Naffziger — January 29, 2009 @ 7:47 am

    Great, I'm glad this helped!

    Dave

  40. Dave Naffziger — January 29, 2009 @ 7:47 am

    Great, I'm glad this helped!

    Dave

  41. zack — February 17, 2009 @ 9:57 pm

    Thanks

  42. marco — March 11, 2009 @ 1:20 pm

    Thanks so much!

  43. MikeyG — April 8, 2009 @ 3:56 pm

    Many thanks… this was a very annoying problem, your post had me sorted in about 2 minutes

  44. vista lover — April 10, 2009 @ 6:18 am

    Im running windows vista, I could not get the cmd method to work for me but I just pasted the same commands mentioned in #4 and #5 above directly into start search bar from the start menu and it fixed it for me, but like another posted mentioned above maybe only step #1 is necessary, I did not try working it untill I finished all 5 steps so I would not know for sure.

  45. Jean-Francois — June 10, 2009 @ 7:32 pm

    thank you again from saving me of the clutches of evil vista!! i ve beeing losing sleep over for the last few days!!

    i owe you!

  46. That chick — June 11, 2009 @ 6:43 am

    i think i love you, i would never have thought of this

  47. James — June 13, 2009 @ 4:22 am

    I have the same problem, I go to uncheck "ignore dde" and it is already unchecked. What do I do now?

  48. Fli — June 15, 2009 @ 12:11 pm

    Thanks HEAPS guys.. that was such a sweet end to a frustrating few hours of reboots and wondering what teh F was happening here.. glad google led me to you..

  49. Dave — June 17, 2009 @ 1:17 pm

    Thank you! This has been bugging me for months and I found your post the instant I searched for a solution. You saved me hours of troubleshooting. Thanks!

  50. Alvin — June 24, 2009 @ 12:41 am

    Thanks a lot!

  51. rash — July 6, 2009 @ 3:24 pm

    nice, came across this and it really helped… thaks alot

  52. gUEST — August 9, 2009 @ 4:37 pm

    The question is what causes this behavior to occur. WHat alters Excel to lose its smarts? I suspect some other app is doing this, like GoZilla maybe?

  53. Lisa — August 10, 2009 @ 6:49 pm

    Thank you so much. I am so appreciative of your easy solution!!!!!!!

  54. Slaven — September 2, 2009 @ 12:09 am

    Thanks, I just started having this problem yesterday, and it took only one Google search to get to your blog post. Works as advertised :)

  55. Arturo Castro — September 12, 2009 @ 1:01 am

    Its works :) niceeeeeeee!!!! Tnks guys

  56. excel-lent — September 14, 2009 @ 3:33 pm

    muchos props amigo! gracias!!

  57. Kathy — September 15, 2009 @ 4:32 pm

    If you are running Vista 64 bit – your path will likely be C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft OfficeOffice12, to verify, drill down in your file system structure to verify where your Microsoft Office executable files reside.
    Other than that minor change this fix worked like a charm.

    Thank you so much!!!

  58. bill — September 15, 2009 @ 8:18 pm

    I really appreciate your help= I remoted in to my device and ran the commands – it sure is going to make my life easier now.

  59. anthony — September 17, 2009 @ 5:04 pm

    This is what makes the internet so valuable. Thanks for posting this!!

  60. Shawn — September 19, 2009 @ 8:29 pm

    THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  61. blaise — September 24, 2009 @ 9:40 pm

    Perfect! Thanks!!!

  62. mona — October 30, 2009 @ 4:27 pm

    Penny's suggestion worked for me. So simple. Thank you.

  63. Bakugan — November 2, 2009 @ 7:36 pm

    This worked in a corp environment where i do not have admin rights and the helpdesk had no idea about how to fix it. Good job.

  64. Jonathan — November 19, 2009 @ 3:37 pm

    Yet another heartache avoided on this thread….thanks so much! I also found that it was not necessary for me to unreg / reg. Thanks again!

  65. headbanger — November 23, 2009 @ 4:31 am

    Thanks champ awesome work

  66. Raquelita — November 30, 2009 @ 3:35 pm

    I didddddddd. God… a technician come to fix this problem, he could not fix it and I IIIIIIII did it well we did it, thank you so so much Dave God bless you for the good that you are doing

  67. Humphrey — December 1, 2009 @ 2:00 am

    I'm going to add my thanks to the list

  68. daytrippar — December 2, 2009 @ 3:36 am

    Thanks buddy! It worked :)

  69. Boby — December 15, 2009 @ 2:21 am

    Just wanted to put in my Thanks :) This has been driving me nuts all day. Just an FYI… This happened to me after a Vista nightly update also.

  70. Amy — January 9, 2010 @ 4:13 pm

    Amen – Thank you!! I was about to throw my computer out the window.

  71. luis — January 16, 2010 @ 2:12 pm

    Thanks. It solved my problem too! If I could sum up all the times I had to make a work around to get my excel.. Thank you for saving time of my life.

  72. Scott — January 25, 2010 @ 5:30 am

    Awesome post, this helped me salvage a workmate's laptop. This post well and truly deserves the high ranking it has on google when searching for a solution to this bug!

  73. Jason — February 9, 2010 @ 6:18 pm

    Dude, your a life saver. THANK YOU THANK YOU. It worked for me by just unchecking the DDE

  74. dcc — February 11, 2010 @ 9:45 pm

    jeez, so glad i found this!

  75. Connie — February 15, 2010 @ 6:15 pm

    Finally! Thanks so much for this fix, I've been fighting this one for months!

  76. Jojo — March 12, 2010 @ 4:15 am

    Greatlly appreciate….. Thanks a lot!

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