Server Excel “file in use" by another user

Question

Hi, I see that there are a lot of other posts on this issue. I have tracked my issue to the following. I need to start at the beginning.

We purchased several new Windows PC's for the office. Our administrator turned on and configured each of the PC's from new. This process included attaching the PC's to our AD domain. He then, under his profile, started the Office installation. Once completed he then logged off and created a new user for each of these PC's with their own AD credential.

Now, It seems that these PC's that were started up, as note above, has his name as the person who has the "file in use" / "locked", even thou the actual person who has the file open is the user who was assigned that PC under their own AD credentials.

I have been able to verify this through the servers computer management shared open files

So, how do we update each of these Windows PC's Office Credentials with the user who is actually opening the server file.

I assume it is a registry key somewhere.

Note, this is only affecting Excel, Word reports the correct user.

Thanks in advance.

MikeC:

Answer 1

Hi @Mike Condon

Have you disabled the preview pane in Windows Explorer that may sometimes resolve the issue?

Besides, which version of Office are users using?

Please go to Excel > Account, sign out all accounts. After doing it, please close all Office apps.

Then I suggest you find following Identity registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity,

(Please note: Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.)

• Make sure the "ADUserName" points to correct user account.
• Right-click the "SignedOutADUser", and then click Delete.
• And then, open Excel, check whether the AD account is automatically signed in, and see if it is correct. Check this issue again.

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