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Word and Excel 2007: Double-clicking a file in Windows Explorer opens up the program but not the file.

Anonymous
2011-03-09T01:42:16+00:00

I am running Microsoft Office 2007 on Windows XP Pro.  When I try to open a Word or Excel file from my desktop or documents folder, the program opens up but the file does not.  I am left with an open program with a blank workspace (not even a blank document).  I had the same problem when I was running Microsoft Office 2003.  Here are the steps I have taken so far (with no solution as of yet):

  1. I upgraded Office 2003 Pro to 2007 Standard (and uninstalled Office 2003 Pro from the Add/Remove Programs dialog) thinking that would solve the problem.  It didn't.
  2. I ran Microsoft Office Diagnostics within the program
  3. I repaired the installation through the Add/Remove Programs dialog in the Control Panel.
  4. I unregistered and reregistered winword.exe through the command line.
  5. I checked my .DOC file type extension in the Tools | Folder Options | File Types dialog. (It is matched with Microsoft Office Word, but there is no "Advanced" button available.  Instead there is a "Restore" button with text that says "You have customized files with extension 'DOC'. To restore these files to their default type (Microsoft Office Word 97-2003 Document), click Restore." I am hesitant to do this because I now have only Office 2007 on my computer.
  6. I deleted all my "normal.dot" files on my computer.
  7. According to one random source, I tried following their instructions to log in as a different user, open Word, save a file, open it from Explorer, then log back in to your own profile.  Word and Excel worked perfectly fine with the other user, but still had problems for my account.
  8. I made sure that "Excel Options | Advanced | Ignore Other Applications" was unchecked. (According to KB211494: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211494)
  9. I found the exact same symptoms in the KB (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950933), but the cause in this case was from a Laserfiche 7.x add-in (which I don't have or even know about).

I'm not seeing any other recommendations through my Google search investigations, and I am concerned that I will have to wipe my whole machine and start fresh to fix this annoying little problem.  Please help!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-03-14T23:45:59+00:00

    Bumping this up to the top... I'm still having issues with Word and Excel.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-03-11T15:55:38+00:00

    No, sorry, that didn't work either.  Any other suggestions?

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-03-11T06:01:11+00:00

    Those settings look correct, however try re-registering Word as shown in the first part of the linked web page.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-03-10T18:12:54+00:00

    The symptoms that www.gmayor.com shows are not the same as mine.  I actually get no error at all.  Word opens up perfectly fine, but leaves me with a blank workspace.  The file does not open automatically and I have to open it through the menu.

    However, just to make sure, below are my registry keys for opening Word documents.  I noticed that there is no "%1" at the end of the command subkey.  Would this be a problem?

    Since I just recently upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2007, I have included both keys.

    Word 2003:

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8\shell\Open\command]

    @=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde"

    "command"=hex(7):76,00,55,00,70,00,41,00,56,00,36,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,\

    21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,4d,00,4b,00,4b,00,53,00,6b,00,57,00,4f,00,52,\

    00,44,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,3e,00,74,00,57,00,7b,00,7e,00,24,00,\

    34,00,51,00,5d,00,63,00,40,00,35,00,64,00,31,00,60,00,2c,00,78,00,61,00,54,\

    00,4f,00,35,00,20,00,2f,00,6e,00,20,00,2f,00,64,00,64,00,65,00,00,00,00,00

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8\shell\Open\ddeexec]

    @="[REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]"

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8\shell\Open\ddeexec\Application]

    @="WinWord"

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8\shell\Open\ddeexec\Topic]

    @="System"

    Word 2007

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open\command]@=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde""command"=hex(7):76,00,55,00,70,00,41,00,56,00,36,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,\21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,4d,00,4b,00,4b,00,53,00,6b,00,57,00,4f,00,52,\00,44,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,3e,00,74,00,57,00,7b,00,7e,00,24,00,\34,00,51,00,5d,00,63,00,40,00,35,00,64,00,31,00,60,00,2c,00,78,00,61,00,54,\00,4f,00,35,00,20,00,2f,00,6e,00,20,00,2f,00,64,00,64,00,65,00,00,00,00,00[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open\ddeexec]@="[REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]"[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open\ddeexec\Application]@="WinWord"[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open\ddeexec\Topic]@="System"

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  5. Anonymous
    2011-03-09T06:52:32+00:00

    Add-ins can certainly affect the behaviour of Word and are a good place to start, but checkout the registry settings shown at http://www.gmayor.com/Document_Not_Found.htm

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