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PerkinElmer ChemDraw no longer opening in MS word 365 after recent windows 10 update

Anonymous
2017-11-18T20:07:17+00:00

Hi all,

I use ChemDraw for effectively all the images in my thesis so it is highly convenient that once you copy-paste something from ChemDraw you can easily edit it in-document by simply double clicking on it, until now! The automatic updates for my Windows 10 OS went ahead this morning and suddenly when I try to use this feature in word it get the "Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges.” message

This is obviously absurd as I am the author of both the word document and the ChemDraw image and what's more the feature still works on other computers that haven't just had the automatic update which is clearly the thing causing this sudden incompatibility

I spent literally 3 hours with Microsoft tech support and after trying a system clean and reinstalling office all they could suggest was that I "update ChemDraw". Has anyone else experienced this/know what to do?

Thank you kindly,

Theo

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Karl Timmermans 3,685 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2017-11-18T21:28:27+00:00

Given that PerkinElmer ChemDraw is a 3rd party application, would suggest the best place to try and get a resolution to the problem would be by contacting the vendor to determine if this is a known issue that impacts all users who have updated or something specific to your system.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-11-26T17:06:52+00:00

    The same issues are affecting me. I cannot open chem draw images in any of my word documents, accompanied by the message "Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges.” . I tried system restore in an attempt to restore my laptop to its status before the windows update, but it would not go back that far. My word documents are also fine on other computers. I have to agree with TheoTH that the windows update seems to be the issue!

    Any help would be greatly appreciated

    All the best,

    Craig

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-11-27T08:57:05+00:00

    Hi Karl,

    Thanks for your response. In the end uninstalling, re-downloading from my universities subscription then reinstalling ChemDraw seemed to fix the issue after doing it twice (not the first time for some reason though)

    I suspect since it was a rather new update Microsoft hadn't tied all the lose ends with it yet, I was told they'd raise a ticket on the issue so hoping they fix it soon

    Cheers,

    Theo

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-11-26T17:27:18+00:00

    Go to settings, recovery options

    You should have the option of restoring your windows to a previous build of Windows 10

    Choose this option

    Your computer will restart

    Chem draw files should now open as normal in all word documents

    Windows update seems to be the problem!!

    Hope this helps

    Craig

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