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When I click on any word document in file explorer I get an error message and no preview

Michael Hanley 1 Reputation point
2020-07-17T16:10:13.027+00:00

Whenever I click on any word document in file explorer, it freezes for a few seconds and then I get a pop-up error window saying
Word : "Word could not create the work file. Check the temp environment variable."

Powerpoint sometimes displays a pop up other times nothing.
PowerPoint : "Access denied. Contact your administrator."

Excel just shows this in the preview pane.
Excel : "This file cannot be previewed."

(2) of us have had this error since getting new computers. We reinstalled office over 5 times each, tried 32bit and 64 bit. I have tried random forum things in the regedit. nothing works.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

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  1. Stefan Blom 3,406 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-07-21T09:05:55.737+00:00

    This is an old issue in Office programs, with certain versions of Windows: the Windows previewer simply isn't working. Turning off the Preview Pane in File Explorer is the only workaround I'm aware of.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-17T16:11:57.36+00:00

    Try copying the file local for a test. Sounds like incorrect network share permissions may be the cause.

  3. Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points
    2020-07-20T08:17:48.877+00:00

    1.For your issue about Word, you may need to locate to C:\Users\userprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows, and create the folder labeled INetCacheContent.Word.

    Here is a related article:

    "Word could not create the work file" error message when you save a document in Microsoft Word

    2.For the issue of PowerPoint, please set the permissions on the parent folder of the redirected folder as listed in the following table.

    More detailed information, please check out this reference.

    You receive an "Access denied" error message, and the program unexpectedly quits when you try to open or save a file in an Office program

    3.About the error message in preview pane, have you tried to open the Excel application first?

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