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Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer

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Just a quick solution in case you ever get the following message when trying to open a SharePoint Document Library in explorer view from Windows Server 2008

Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer.

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This is due to the fact that Explorer view uses the WebDav protocol to connect to SharePoint from the client.  As Windows Server is not designed to be a client, the WebDav client is not installed or enabled by default.  

In order to enable the WebDav client (along with other client features such as Windows Media Player and Desktop Themes) on a server (you’re not doing this on a production server, right?), simply enable the Desktop Experience feature.

(thanks to Troy on the SharePoint team for this tip!)

Update: This can also happen if you are using Internet Explorer 6 and the URL to the Document Library is longer than 100 characters (covered in KB 923906), but you're not using IE 6 are you? It's time to upgrade! https://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    User could open and close document library once and then would receive the error when attempting to open the second time. Restarting the WebClient Service allows the user to open a second time.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Although this works, there is no reason to thank an individual such as Troy.

  • Anonymous
    September 23, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 10, 2011
    I've been trying to solve this problem for many hours, over several days.  I get the "Your client does not support..." message, or nothing at all when I try to open a document library in Explorer View on SharePoint Foundation 2010.  On Server 2008 R2, I get the "your client..." message.  On Windows 7 with ie8 32-bit, I get nothing.  With ie8 64-bit, I get the "your client" message.  I downloaded ie9 beta - I get the message with that too. The Desktop Experience is installed.  WebClient is automatic and running.  

  • Anonymous
    January 20, 2011
    Not the first time this post has come up on my searches for this problem, targeting Win7 clients and SharePoint 2007, where it is happening to me.  (Although the server itself is Win2008, just not what I'm searching on.) Has anyone out there got an answer to this? I don't count constantly restarting the Web Client service as a solution, it doesn't even work well enough to be considered a workaround.

  • Anonymous
    January 25, 2011
    I also have this issue.   Sharepoint foundation 2010 with desktop experiance enabled Windows 7 client with Web Client service running, automatic Same error Webdev does not make any differance.

  • Anonymous
    January 31, 2011
    I have same issue w/ 64bit Windows 7 client on Sharepoint 3.0 site (2003 server) - 32bit Win 7 clients work fine.  All non-2010 specific changes have been tried and failed to correct.

  • Anonymous
    February 02, 2011
    Guys/Gals... Remember this can also happen if you are using Firefox...(scream .....now!) Have a great day! Joshua

  • Anonymous
    February 04, 2011
    This worked fine first off. So I copied a few files from a V3 farm doc lib to a Foundation farm doc lib - great. 5 minutes later tried to copy a few more files but apparently my client has decided it "does not support opening this list with WIndows Explorer". But 5 minutes ago it worked fine.

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2011
    I'm seeing this problem with only some site collections after migrating to sp2010 from moss - some site collections can open Explorer view w/ no problems, at least one site collection gets the error described.  From the same computer (Win7 64 bit), same browser (IE 8 32 bit).  puzzled, and still looking for resolution.

  • Anonymous
    June 03, 2011
    On Windows 7, simple start the WebClient Service to get this working!

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2011
    When on windows 7 the webclient service seems to be running, restart it.  

  • Anonymous
    July 20, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2011
    IE9 and no amount of restarting webclient can help me connect. Seriously Microsoft can we get some troubleshooting guidance here?

  • Anonymous
    January 04, 2012
    Experiencing the same issue here, Windows 7 client, no error with windows XP clients.

  • Anonymous
    January 11, 2012
    Same as all above - on IE9 and restarting WebClient does nothing. Some document libraries can open with explorer but others cannot - inconsistent behaviour!

  • Anonymous
    January 31, 2012
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 25, 2012
    Same exact thing is happening to me. with win server 2008 r2 and sharepoint 2010 , win xp client , ie8. when i update ie8 this is solved.

  • Anonymous
    March 25, 2013
    Same issue here, nothing seems to solve the issue permanently.

  • Anonymous
    July 02, 2013
    not working on w7 with ie 10, 32 bit, webclient is running, cache is clear, url in trusted zone... but still not working

  • Anonymous
    August 29, 2013
    not working on w7 with ie 9- 32 bit, webclient is running, cache is clear, url in trusted zone... but still not working nothing has changed on any fixes I have tried

  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2013
    It's pretty sad when MS can't even put out a product that talks to their own product correctly.

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2013
    hice todos los pasos ya sea opciones de internet , webclient , experiencia de escritorio (server08) IE 8,9 y nada , tengo un error de certificado , puede ser eso el problema ??

  • Anonymous
    October 06, 2014
    For SharePoint 2013, my problem was that I was trying to "Open with Explorer" something that probably can't be opened with Explorer. In my case, I just wanted to open my team's Shared Documents with Explorer. I found that when I first log into SharePoint and view the page, I'm presented with those Shared Documents, but also other things as well. To get "Open with Explorer" to work, I must click "Shared Documents" under the Libraries heading on the left. Then, all the other stuff (Links, Getting Starter, etc.) go away and I'm focused on my team's shared documents. From there, I can go up to the Library Tools section in the ribbon, choose the Library tab in the ribbon, and click Open with Explorer.

    Works like a champ on Windows 7 64-bit, running IE 9 32-bit.

  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2014
    Update on the above: I'm using SharePoint 2010 and not always does the above solution seem to work; seems as random as ever.

  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2014
    Update on the above: Seems logging out of SharePoint and back in alleviates the problem, though I also cleared my cookies and temporary internet files before doing so. I'll keep running experiments until I figure out what the repeatable solution seems to be.

  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2014
    This is what I hope to be my final update and solution to this problem, at least in my environment. I have to first open a file (any file) from that SharePoint site. Once opened, I can click Open with Explorer and it works consistently.

  • Anonymous
    December 09, 2014
    This worked for us after all else failed.

    http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie11-windows_7/ie-11-on-windows-7-sharepoint-open-in-explorer/f138ec8a-c93a-4da4-8c2c-40be0dbbf09b?rtAction=1418144871022

  • Anonymous
    January 26, 2015
    My experience has shown that these issues are solved by using the 32-bit version of IE, which is of course located here:

    C:Program Files (x86)Internet Exploreriexplore.exe

  • Anonymous
    February 15, 2015
    I could resolve the issue by opening the document library with 32-bit internet explorer.