Excel 2010 Issue

Question

Need help with an Excel “An error occurred when sending commands to the program” error when trying to open documents.  You can double click an excel document and you receive this error, a blank Excel workbook opens, then double click the document a second time and the document opens.  If you have Excel open and try double clicking the document it opens fine or open the document from within Excel using the Open feature.

This in only happening on a new batch of 20 Dell Latitude E6540 laptops that I just setup.  They are running Windows 7 64 bit and Office 2010.

I have tried the following suggested fixes but they have not corrected the issue.

The ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is unchecked

I’ve repaired office – uninstalled and reinstalled office

I’ve checked file association and they are all set to open with Excel

Excel properties has Run this program as an administrator unchecked

I have changed regsitry HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\open\command to add the “%1” and deleted HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\open\ddeexec  and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\open\command to add the “%1” and deleted HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\open\ddeexec – This works to correct the issue until a new update comes out and then it resets all this back and the issue has returned – I can’t go to 20 machines and make these changes every time updates are run….

I will note that when I do the Office repair and then reboot, the first time I open an Excel document it opens fine.  Then after the first one - any documents I try to open after that have the same issue as previously described. 

I would also mention that these laptops came with a trial offer of Office 365.  I uninstalled it from Programs and then installed Office 2010.  Could something still be in the registry or somewhere with Office 365 that would be causing the issue?

I would really appreciate any suggestions that I can get as this is an extremely frustrating issue.  Thanks everyone.

Answer 1

Have tried all of the suggested and still having the issue.  Would really appreciate any additional help anyone can offer.  Have been trying to fix this issue for over a month....

Answer 2

Following are likely solutions.

1. Please try to repair your Office as a quick fix.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/excel-help/repair-office-programs-HA010357402.aspx

2. Please look into C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel (replace user name with your user name, you can directly reach here by copy and pasting following without quotes in Explorer address bar - "%appdata%\Microsoft\Excel") and see if is contains few files / folders. Move those files to some other location (i.e create a backup of those files / folders and delete all files / folders from here). Hence, make Excel folder blank.

Now open the file and see if the problem disappears or not. 

Note - to find Excel path, you need to find XLSTART path. Excel folder contains XLSTART folder in itself (In case, your XLSTART path is not in Appdata)

1. Open Excel
2. ALT+F11
3. If Immediate Window is not visible, type CTRL+G. Same can be also be accessed through View > Immediate Window
4. Type "? application.StartupPath" without quotes and press enter
5. You will have your path below.
6. Sometimes, this is caused due to excel not being able to access the default printer. Close all office applications and change your default printer through Start > Devices and Printers to another printer. It may be some physical one or One Note or XPS or PDF or anything else. If this is the problem, then you will need to update your printer driver for default printer.
7. Many third party applications also cause the problem like Tuneup Utilities, Abby Finereader, Kaspersky Anti Virus  etc. See if you have any of them installed. Close them one by one and see whether it helps.
8. Sometimes, add-ins can cause problems. To determine, if add-in is a problem start Excel in safe mode and see if problem has gone away. If yes, then start Excel normally and disable add-ins one by one and start Excel again every time you disable an add-in to determine the culprit add-in.

To start Excel in Safe Mode -

Hold CTRL key and click on Excel icon

OR

In the Search Box above Windows icon, type "Excel /s" without quotes and enter.

6. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15, look for EXCEL.EXE

Right Click on this, Properties, In Compatibility tab, check ""Run this Program as an Administrator""

Start the Excel. You might again get the error. Close Excel and uncheck "Run this Program as an Administrator" and start Excel again. You should not get the error anymore.

(If folder path is not correct, you will have to find EXCEL.EXE manually, like Program Files (x86) may be Program Files. Or you can even search for EXCEL.EXE in your C: drive

7. File > Options > Advanced - In General section (go very much down in Advanced), check "Ignore Other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)". Close and re-start the Excel. Uncheck "Ignore Other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)". Close and re-start Excel again. You should not get the error anymore. (Basically, DDE should remain unchecked)
8. You may try to disable the Hardware Graphic Acceleration and verify the result:

    Open Excel.

    Click on file, Options.

    Go to the Advanced tab.

    Under the Display section, check the box for 'Disable hardware graphics acceleration'.

    Click ok and restart Excel.

9. Login to Windows with a new user profile and see if problem is resolved.
10. File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Protected View > Uncheck all options

File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > File Block Settings > Uncheck all options.

11. Review the KB articles - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2758592 and https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2779852
12. If none of above works, please uninstall the current installed Office, and reinstall it again. Before resorting to uninstall, make sure that you have the license keys.

To uninstall the Office, follow the instructions in the following support article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501 & http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971179/en-us

Note: Ensure to save the Fix it on the desktop and then run the file.