Dave Naffziger’s Blog

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

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

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.

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

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!

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?

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

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!!!

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!

It worked for me too.
Thanks

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

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

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?

Thank you so much! This worked perfectly!

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

Excellent fix many thanks

You are my hero… for real.

Thanks alot!

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

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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!

Thanks! This saved me so much time!

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

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

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

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

God bless you!

Thank you!!!!!

Thanks…

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

Great! It also worked for me!

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

super, flawless solution,

thanks

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

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

Great, I'm glad this helped!

Dave

Great, I'm glad this helped!

Dave

Thanks

Thanks so much!

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

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.

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!

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

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

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..

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!

Thanks a lot!

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

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?

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

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

Its works :) niceeeeeeee!!!! Tnks guys

muchos props amigo! gracias!!

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!!!

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.

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

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

Perfect! Thanks!!!

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

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.

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!

Thanks champ awesome work

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

I'm going to add my thanks to the list

Thanks buddy! It worked :)

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.

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

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.

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!

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

jeez, so glad i found this!

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

Greatlly appreciate….. Thanks a lot!

great fix ! thank you !!!

thanks. perfect fix. appreciate it.

It Works great!!! Thank you so much!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH ! IT WORKS!

Hi, I'm using Vista and I changed Excel 2007 compatibility and launch as administrator always. This change creates me the same problem: when I doubleclick an Excel file from anywhere (desktop, windows explorer, etc.):
Windows cannot find ‘pathfile’
I have no check on Ignore other applications… and I executed excel.exe /unregserver and
excel.exe /regserver, but the behaviour is the same.
Without the property: launch as administrator it woorks properly.
Has anyone some suggestion?
Thanks a lot.
Oana

The ignore DDE just needs to be unchecked. Uncheck press ok.. and presto. It started working again.
Great Thanks!!!

Great thanks, this resolved my problem.

****

Holy cow! This fixed my issue. I was missing the bit about /unregserver /regserver, but after I executed those commands it resolved my issue! Thanks!!!

Thank You So much. I have been pulling my hair out with this for a week. Unchecking the Ignore other applications fix it right away. Also cleared the errors in all the shortcuts. This is a fix that will be imprinted in my brain for quite some time.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
spent 4 hours online b4 I found your post. ( then fixed in 5 mins)

Thanks!!!! I've lived with this for weeks and finally got fed up enough to google it – sorted in minutes – theres a lesson for me there!

Worked like a charm, thanks.

I just installed office 2010 and I'd had the problem for quite a while now and thought the update might fix it. It didn't…. I ignored it for a while and then I said hey lets see if anyone else has the same problem… a quick search later and i find this and THANK YOU! It took all of 3 minutes to get rid of hours of headaches.

God bless!

Thank you so much.

Thank you Very, very much. saved my day.

Thx Thx thank you so much I have been trying to get this fixed for weeks, This is what i needed thanks

Worked like a champ!! I just used the /unregserver and /regserver command on Excel 2003.

Thank you very much for the solution.

Thank you very much, this was annoying as I needed to always drag and drop file to open it and now it is working just fine!

Works!

Sorry – works for 2007 – need to perform the DDE check box clearing as well.

Thanks a lot. Microsofts regedit fix wasn’t even close. This was spot on. I appreciate your posting it.

oh my gosh I have the same problem and I will not have Excel 2003 for a while.Thank you so much for posting this.

http://gloriatech.com/excel-200320072010-sms-addon.aspx

cmd method didn’t work in Vista (no shock as naff all works in it anyway!!). The copying & pasting commands mentioned in #4 and #5 above directly into start search bar from the start menu worked a treat! Thanks all – star performance!!

Thank you for this solution, I’m very happy I stumbled upon this post through searching google.
Thanks a lot

-N, Belgium

btw, any idea how the problem might have gotten there to begin with?
Do you think it’s a virus?

Thanks a lot, it solved my problem. Many many thanks.
S, USA

Thanks so much, this has been bugging me for months!

Thanks so much for providing this solution. I have been struggling with this for months. Thanks again.

Thank you so much, it was really helpful.

Thank you so much, it was really helpful.

Whoo Hoooo U R da MAN !!! It worked 4 me !!! Thanx

Wow! It’s posts like this that restore my faith in humanity. I can’t tell you how annoying that was… oh yeah, you know. Thanks!

Brilliant – Just fixed my friend’s Office 2007 installation with this – It’s been driving her nuts for the last year and she uses spreadsheets daily for her charity work in Haiti!

Thank you so much.

Perffect. Tks.

You rock! Thanks!

you rock -  that worked

Worked Like a charm! Thanks been looking far and wide for the fix to associate excel files and word files with the program.

The instruction works really well. I had a similar problem with PaintShopPro 9 — It would not open the graphics files when I double clicking them in Windows Explorer. The only way I can open the files is when I’m inside of the PaintShopPro. Even when I reinstall PSP again, I still had the same error. With this instruction (unregserver and then regserver), it works like a charm. THANKS!

Thanks a lot.

Great fix!!!

I love you dude. Thanks so much

Thanx!!! :)

Thanks!

That actually worked in 2007, thank you. It has been bugging me for ages, but I finally got around to looking into a fix, and this did it. Many thanks.

Try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756

But be careful when messing with the registry.

Aweomse!  That worked like a charm!

YOU”VE SAVED ME!!!!   I’ve been plagued with this issue for over a year and could not find a solution   THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! 

when i double click ms word 2007 or 2003 he can’t open and no error appear in screen.??????please help me

thank you so much this worked great!

thanks a lot. the problem fix !!! it solve my problem.. many thanks

Amazing, this worked, except that in Windows Vista, I dod not go to CMD. After going to Start/Run, I put in  excel /unregserver, closed Excel typed in excel /regserver and closed Excel again.

See how I fixed it in Vista, if it is still a problem for you.

Fantastic – thanks so much this has been driving me nuts!  I also have Vista so copying and pasting commands 4 and then 5 directly into the start search bar worked for me too :)

 Thanks for this method – worked a treat for me too!

It worked :)
Thanks a lot………
From
India

FANTASTIC.  After four days of chasing this thing down you were the only one that had the solution!  Thank you very much!

This article is great and worked well.  THANK YOU!!!!!

Thanks a lot!!!!!. It is very usefull

Thanks,
I had the problem and my helpdesk could not find any solution. Looked problem up, found your advice and…. it works!
Thanks a lot.

Thanks! Awesome fix…

Thanks

Cheers!!!.. Bang upon.

Awesome…….thanks…just saved me a lot of time

Awesome stuff, thanks mate.

Many Thanks,

Thanks a lot it still works

Thank you very very very much !!!! Worked like a charm ! Brilliant !

Thank you! I had been trying a lot of other solutions, but this is the only one that worked for me. Great work!

You rock! Thanks!!

Thansk a loyt