The Microsoft Excel Support Team Blog

Update 8/29/2017: License Errors for MSCOMCTL.OCX After July/August 2017 Update of Office 365 ProPlus

Ann H - Msft — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 10:19:54 GMT

UPDATE: This issue is resolved. Scroll down to see the Resolution section. Problem: Current Channel subscribers to Office 365 ProPlus (Office 2016 C2R) who received updates in late July or early August 2017 may receive errors in VBA-enabled applications (i.e., Access, Excel, Word) or in third-party programs (VB6 programs) who have existing compiled projects using controls from the Microsoft Windows Common Controls Library (MSCOMCTL.OCX). The error occurs during attempts to instantiate a licensed control with a runtime key. The error message returned by VB/VBA is:

Run-time error ‘429’: You do not have an appropriate license to use this functionality

This error may cause the program to fail to load, or may result in reduced functionality, depending on the code project design. The version of MSCOMCTL.OCX with the problem is 7.0.45.30876 (signature timestamped June ‎21, ‎2017). The build only shipped to O365 subscribers; Office 2016 MSI products are not impacted. Cause: The refactor of code introduced a problem for certain runtime license keys used in the instantiation of a runtime control instance from VB/VBA projects. Not all projects see the error because it depends on the runtime key originally acquired and saved when the code was compiled. Resolution: A code fix was made for MSCOMCTL.OCX, and has been released (August 29, 2017) for Office 365 ProPlus 2016 Current Channel subscribers in update 16.0.8326.2096 of the June fork (1706). Clients will be receiving the update over the next few weeks following their normal update schedule. To install the update right away, you can issue the following commands in an elevated command prompt window:

cd %programfiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun officec2rclient.exe /update user updatetoversion=16.0.8326.2096

After the update, the version of MSCOMCTL.OCX installed will be version 7.0.52.6282 (digitally signed on August 4, 2017).

"Do you want to download the converter?" when you try to open a file in Excel, Word or PowerPoint KB Article

Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 15:21:16 GMT

Hello, this is Laura from the content team from Microsoft. We are seeing a lot of traffic to this KB article, Error message "Do you want to download the converter?" when you try to open a file in Excel, Word or PowerPoint https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/967950 I can’t figure out why this article is getting so many hits, or what type of content that you are searching for. This is where I need your help, if this article didn’t fix your issue, please answer the following questions, and post your answers here. Note: Your information will not be posted publicly and it will help us get the correct content or fix to help resolve the issues you are running into. 1.What version of Office Application are you using? If unsure how to know what version of Office follow, the steps in this article, What version of Office am I using? 2. What version of Windows are you using? If unsure how to know what version of Windows follow the steps in this article, Which Windows operating system am I running? 3. What type of file are you trying to open?

In File Explorer record the name of the file, including the extension. Example: Test.doc, Test.xls, Test.docx
If the extension is not showing see; How to show or hide file name extensions in Windows Explorer

4. What error message do you get when attempting to open the file? (Please record the exact error message) 5. Are you trying to open a file sent to you in email? (examples: open an attachment, double clicking on a file while in your email client. 6. Are you trying to open a file from a Cloud location? (example: OneDrive, DropBox, GoogleDrive, iCloud) 7. Any other information that you can provide that you feel would be beneficial. Thanks for helping me collect this information!

Update 8/9/2016: Excel Workbooks may not open after installing MS16-088

Laura Holzwarth-Struck [MSFT] — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 07:38:26 GMT

UPDATE: This issue is resolved, scroll to the bottom to see the Resolution Section in todays update. The Excel team has made a change in the behavior of certain file types to increase security. This change came in the security updates KB3115262, KB3170008, and KB3115322. Previously, when you tried to open an HTML or XLA file with an .XLS file extension from an untrusted location, Excel would warn about the mismatch between the file extension and content, but would still open the workbook without Protected View security. After the security updates Excel no longer will open the workbook because these files are not compatible with Protected View and there is no warning or other indication it was not opened. We apologize that Excel is showing a blank screen instead of a more helpful error message with information about what to do next. We have a few options for workarounds. These are in order from safest to riskiest. While some people in the forums have suggested rolling back the security patch, we do not recommend that option as it can leave you open to other current and future threats.

The best option is to move away from using HTML wrapped as .xls. If you use native formats (e.g. xls, xlsx, xlsb) which will open in protected view when untrusted, this will provide some level of protection from the documents being opened.
You can unblock access for individual files you know are safe. To do this:
1. Right click on the file and choose Properties
2. On the General tab, click Unblock
3. Click OK
You can make use of existing Trusted Locations capabilities in Excel 2010, 2013, and 2016 via File -> options -> Trust Center -> Trust Center Settings -> Trusted Locations.
1. You can save the web html file to a trusted location on the local machine (Excel comes with a set of default trust locations). If you do not see the local folder location you trust for these files, then press “Add new location…” button and add it in the Trusted Location dialog. If the HTML document is in a trusted location the KB fix is not applied (e.g. the unsafe HTML file is not blocked).
2. This approach may unblock you, but it carries some risk as files of any file type in Trusted Locations are fully trusted. If an attacker can drop files into the trusted location they can easily exploit users who open such documents. Be especially cautious when specifying a custom folder as a trusted location.

Update 7/28/2016 Update: Our dev team is working on options to preserve security and assist customers with their workflow. Currently we do not have any further workarounds. Additional background: The security update changed how Excel handles documents that are opened from untrusted locations (such the Internet zone) which are not supported in Protected View, such as HTML/XML/XLA files. Opening them without Protected View has led to a security vulnerability, and therefore files open from such locations are now blocked. We realize this breaks compatibility with some existing solutions, and are working on getting these file types supported with Protected View. Until that happens, users will need to manually trust the file before they open them in Excel, as demonstrated in one of the workaround suggestions. Excel can still open these files without an issue if they are trusted. We strongly recommend against removing the security update. It will leave your systems vulnerable. More information is located here: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/security/MS16-088?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396. Specifically, the section regarding "Microsoft Office Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability – CVE-2016-3279". Additional information on implementing workaround options, by product version: Office 2016 Here is information on Office Trusted Locations https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179039(v=office.16).aspx and information on Protected View settings https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee857087(v=office.16).aspx Office 2013 Here is information on Office Trusted Locations https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179039(v=office.15).aspx and information on Protected View settings https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee857087(v=office.15).aspx Office 2010 Here is information on Office Trusted Locations https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179039(v=office.14).aspx and information on Protected View settings https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee857087(v=office.14).aspx

Update 8/9/2016 Resolution Install the update for your version of Office.

Office 365 subscription (Click-to-Run)—install the latest updates (this includes, Current Channel, First Release Deferred Channel and Deferred Channel)
Installer version (MSI)—To get the fix today, use the links in the KB for your version of Office to download the update from the Download Center. The updates will also publish to Windows Update/WSUS service next week where they will be updated automatically based on the Windows Update settings.
- Office 2016: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3115438
- Office 2013: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3115455
- Office 2010: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3115476

Excel 2013 and Excel 2016 Large Address Aware Updates

Amber Me - MSFT — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 16:20:47 GMT

Improvements have been made to Excel 2013 and Excel 2016 applications that may help alleviate issues seen with Out of Memory type of errors. Among the ones most notable are that we've added Large Address Aware capability which will provide the opportunity to utilize more memory with 32-bit Excel 2013 and 32-bit Excel 2016, if needed. Additionally, for those that need even more memory and require using separate instances in order to achieve this, we've added a registry key so that you can choose to set the application to do this for you by default. There are caveats and details that I won't go in to here. However, these articles below help explain the specific changes I've mentioned in more detail. These changes were implemented for Excel 2016 O365 Current Channel Subscribers in May 2016, version 16.0.6868.2060. Large Address Aware Capability Change for Excel https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/kb/3160741 On June 7th, the updates for Excel 2013 MSI and Excel 2016 MSI were released. June 7, 2016, update for Excel 2013 (KB3115162) https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3115162 June 7, 2016, update for Excel 2016 (KB3115139) https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3115139 How to force Excel to open in new instance by Default https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3165211 On June 14th, large address aware was released for Excel 2013 Click-to-Run in the June 2016 Update - Version 15.0.4833.1001 Reference this article for a list of Office 2013 Click-to-Run builds: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/office-2013-365-update Note: While the intention is to help alleviate issues with memory requirements, we still recommend careful designing of your data, formatting and formula usage as well as maintenance to periodically remove components that are no longer necessary or were added unintentionally in order to ensure memory is used in the most efficient manner. Additionally, while the ability to use large address aware does help in most cases, there is still a limit (as explained in the articles) and you may still experience an error if you are still using a large amount of memory and exceed this higher limit still. I've included additional references we've published to help with these suggestions below as well. Additional References:

How to Troubleshoot Memory Errors in Excel; "Available Resources", "Out of Memory", "System Resources" https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/2013/04/19/how-to-troubleshoot-memory-errors-in-excel-available-resources-out-of-memory-system-resources/

2779852 How to Troubleshooting Available Resources errors in Excel https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2779852

Top 10 List of Performance Issues in Excel Workbooks https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/2012/12/18/top-10-list-of-performance-issues-in-excel-workbooks/

Excel 2013 32-bit Performance Articles Released https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/2015/07/07/excel-2013-32-bit-performance-articles-released/

Changes in Office 2016 for Windows

Amber Me - MSFT — Tue, 12 Apr 2016 07:30:34 GMT

An article is now available listing changes made to Office 2016 for Windows. While there are some broad changes in Office overall, specifically for Excel, the PowerView add-in has been decremented and will be available via the PowerBI Desktop. Changes in Office 2016 for Windows https://technet.microsoft.com/library/mt715497(v=office.16).aspx

Excel 2016 re-enabled after installing KB3114520

Amber Me - MSFT — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 16:29:53 GMT

It's been found that users that have set Excel 2016 as not available via the Office Customization Tool (OCT) for their MSI or Volume License installs are experiencing Excel getting enabled and available on the machine after installing KB 3114520 for Office 2016.

SOLUTION: Microsoft is currently working on a solution for this issue. However, we anticipate the solution will only help prevent this from happening and will not resolve those issues where users are already experiencing this issue. If you are experiencing this issue after applying the update, the best option is to use the OCT to set Excel back to disabled. However, individual users are still able to edit these settings themselves. Steps to manually set Excel back to unavailable: Control Panel > Programs and Features > select Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 > Change > Add or Remove Features > Microsoft Excel, choose "Not Available" in the dropdown options

"We couldn't get data from the external source" refreshing data from SQL Server in Excel

Amber Me - MSFT — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 15:37:06 GMT

Have you ever experienced an issue where you are working in an Excel file, connected without a problem to your SQL Server cube data, but after letting the application sit idle for a time (ex. 3-6 minutes), you get an error similar to the one below when you come back and try to refresh the connection again or click on a slicer?

ERROR: "We couldn't get data from the external data source. Here's the error message we got: An error was encountered in the transport layer."

If you continue to try to refresh the connection again, does it then eventually return and refresh successfully?

If you've seen this before, first check to ensure your MSOLAP driver is updated on your client and your server. In addition, verify that all of your SQL Server settings such as Idleconnectiontimeout, IdleOrphanSessionTimeout, MaxIdleSessionTimeout, MinIdleSessionTimeout are set to the default values. If yes, we'd then recommend removing any encryption, antivirus or monitoring types of software from the environment and testing for improvement. As it's typically simpler to perform these types of tests on the client machine, we'd recommend testing there first, but if the issues persist, try doing the same on your server.

Additional Note:

If you've experienced an error similar to above or "Operation cancelled by user" , and the issue appears specific to something on your client machine, you may also want to install the hotfix below.

3114734 MS16-015: Description of the security update for Excel 2013: February 9, 2016
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3114734/EN-US

Excel 2016 add-in "Inquire" will not load

Amber Me - MSFT — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 14:01:00 GMT

It's been reported that after applying January updates for Excel 2016, the Inquire add-in is not loading as expected for some customers.

The behavior being reported is that the COM add-in is listed under the section for Inactive Application Add-ins and when users try to enable the add-in, it either results in no changes or an error similar to the one below occurs.

ERROR:
"Not loaded. A runtime error occurred during the loading of the COM Add-In."

WORKAROUND:

We have found that 32-bit installations of Excel are affected. We understand this workaround is not ideal in some cases, however, the only workaround currently is to uninstall the 32-bit version of Office, and install the 64-bit version instead.

Microsoft is aware of this issue and is working on a solution.

Error launching Office applications after January updates

Amber Me - MSFT — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 07:54:00 GMT

It's been reported that after applying January 2016 update (KB 3114506), customers are experiencing an error on Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 when trying to launch Office applications such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneDrive for Business.

Error Examples:

System Error - The program can’t start because davclnt.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

Sorry, something went wrong when trying to obtain a shared computer license for Word. Error code: 0xc004f014

Excel application error:

Word application error:

RESOLUTION:

Currently, Microsoft is working on the issue and will be providing an update when a fix becomes available. As a workaround, install Desktop User Experience, which ensures the davclnt is available.

See this article for further information:

Error: The Program can’t start because davclnt.dll is missing from your computer
https://community.office365.com/en-us/f/172/t/427963

UPDATE:
This issue was fixed with KB3114736, February 2016 update.

3114736 February 9, 2016, update for Office 2013 (KB3114736)
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3114736/EN-US

Office applications crash when opening files from Outlook in Protected View on Windows 10

Amber Me - MSFT — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 10:01:00 GMT

It's been reported that after upgrading to Windows 10, when opening Office files from Outlook emails, or OWA, the Office applications appear to launch but then throw an error before finally crashing. This only occurs when Protected View is enabled for opening files as attachments.

ERROR Example:
Word experienced an error trying to open the file.
                Try these suggestions.
                * Check the file permissions for the document or drive
                * Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space
                * Open the file with the Text Recovery converter.

Note: Various versions of this error will occur with each individual application.

RESOLUTION:

Try updating your DisplayLink driver if in use. DisplayLink recommends v7.9 (or later) software for use with Windows 10. For this particular issue, we've found that version 7.9M4 was necessary to resolve the issue.

Reference: https://www.displaylink.com/downloads/windows

Note: We do no recommend disabling Protected View.

Disclaimer: The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.