Cannot Open a Word or Excel Document from Explorer

This is my last resort to find help on this issue. I have the Standard
Edition of Office 2003. When I or any other user on this machine tries to
open a Word or Excel document (or any document that uses DDE from the
command line), the application opens but the document does not. I can click
to open the document once the application is already open. I can also open
it from the menu. It does not open if I right click and select "Open with."
Because of this problem I cannot open Word or Excel attachments on e-mail
messages. I have tried the following troubleshooting steps before posting
he

1. Repair the installation
2. Unregistered and reregister the applications
3. Uncheck the "Ignore other applications" in Excel.
4. Reassociate the file types

Microsoft support gave up after 10 minutes and told me to just use file,
open from the menu. I could not dig up any articles in the Knowledge Base
or through Google. This problem is evident with any application that uses
DDE, not just Office applications. I really would like to get this feature
back because I often print multiple Word and Excel documents from the
context menu. Any smart MVP out there know the answer to this problem?

Thanks,
Mark

First, if you use Norton AV then it could be an option in Norton
called the "Office Plug-in" that is causing the problem. It's been
known to interpret DDE as a 'threat' and stops the data exchange. Go
to Norton Options and under the Miscellaneous section turn off "Enable
Office Plug-in".

If that isn't it did you update your virus scanner recently?

Otherwise, what version of Windows are you using? What patches do you
have installed for Windows and Office? What other applications are
encountering this issue? Can you provide an example of the command you
are using to open a file? IOW, are you specifying a path or just the
file name? And just to clarify, are referring to the Command prompt or
the Run command?

Have you also tried repairing your Windows installation?

Along with the above, are you also saying you are unable to
double-click a Word or Excel file to open it outside the application?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Mark Milliman" wrote in message
...
This is my last resort to find help on this issue. I have the
Standard Edition of Office 2003. When I or any other user on this
machine tries to open a Word or Excel document (or any document that
uses DDE from the command line), the application opens but the
document does not. I can click to open the document once the
application is already open. I can also open it from the menu. It
does not open if I right click and select "Open with." Because of
this problem I cannot open Word or Excel attachments on e-mail
messages. I have tried the following troubleshooting steps before
posting he

1. Repair the installation
2. Unregistered and reregister the applications
3. Uncheck the "Ignore other applications" in Excel.
4. Reassociate the file types

Microsoft support gave up after 10 minutes and told me to just use
file, open from the menu. I could not dig up any articles in the
Knowledge Base or through Google. This problem is evident with any
application that uses DDE, not just Office applications. I really
would like to get this feature back because I often print multiple
Word and Excel documents from the context menu. Any smart MVP out
there know the answer to this problem?

Thanks,
Mark

Beth:

Thanks for your quick response. I am using NAV, but I have disabled the
plug-in. Although I am not sure if it is really disabled because I see
Excel and Word scanning my add-ins when it first starts. Office doesn't
have its own virus scanner right? I just ran Live Update manually so I'll
check it out after rebooting. I let NAV automatically update itself to keep
everything current.

I am using Windows XP Home SP 2 with all the latest patches that MS has
posted through Windows Update. Likewise I am using Office 2003 SP1 (Excel
11.6355.6408). Other applications that give me problems that use DDE are
the Palm Desktop for Palm OS and Palm Quick Install.

I am using the standard file associations created when I installed Office
2003 to launch the programs. All I do is click on the file icon in Explorer
and the application opens without opening the document. Explorer provides
the full path of the document and the application. I could type a command
such as excel "c:\documents and settings\Mark Milliman\My
Documents\Projects\Test Workbook.xls" and have it open successfully because
it doesn't use the file associations or DDE.

I have not tried repairing my Windows installation, and I am a bit
apprehensive to do so. Don't I lose all of my settings and have to
reinstall all the service packs and hotfixes?

You are correct that I cannot double-click on an icon in Explorer and have
it open the application AND document.

Hope this helps,
Mark


"Beth Melton" wrote in message
...
First, if you use Norton AV then it could be an option in Norton called
the "Office Plug-in" that is causing the problem. It's been known to
interpret DDE as a 'threat' and stops the data exchange. Go to Norton
Options and under the Miscellaneous section turn off "Enable Office
Plug-in".

If that isn't it did you update your virus scanner recently?

Otherwise, what version of Windows are you using? What patches do you have
installed for Windows and Office? What other applications are encountering
this issue? Can you provide an example of the command you are using to
open a file? IOW, are you specifying a path or just the file name? And
just to clarify, are referring to the Command prompt or the Run command?

Have you also tried repairing your Windows installation?

Along with the above, are you also saying you are unable to double-click a
Word or Excel file to open it outside the application?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Mark Milliman" wrote in message
...
This is my last resort to find help on this issue. I have the Standard
Edition of Office 2003. When I or any other user on this machine tries
to open a Word or Excel document (or any document that uses DDE from the
command line), the application opens but the document does not. I can
click to open the document once the application is already open. I can
also open it from the menu. It does not open if I right click and select
"Open with." Because of this problem I cannot open Word or Excel
attachments on e-mail messages. I have tried the following
troubleshooting steps before posting he

1. Repair the installation
2. Unregistered and reregister the applications
3. Uncheck the "Ignore other applications" in Excel.
4. Reassociate the file types

Microsoft support gave up after 10 minutes and told me to just use file,
open from the menu. I could not dig up any articles in the Knowledge
Base or through Google. This problem is evident with any application
that uses DDE, not just Office applications. I really would like to get
this feature back because I often print multiple Word and Excel documents
from the context menu. Any smart MVP out there know the answer to this
problem?

Thanks,
Mark

If you see "Running virus scan" in the status bar when starting
Word/Excel or opening a file then either the Office Plug-in is still
enabled or you have another virus scanner that scans Office documents.

If you had a previous version of NAV installed then it's possible the
DLL for the plug-in for the previous version is enabled. It wouldn't
hurt to search for "officeav.dll" (without the quotes) and un-register
it using the following command on each Officeav.dll you may find.

Go to Start/Run and run:

regsvr32 /u "c:\program files\norton antivirus\officeav.dll"

In the above example the path for "Officeav.dll" would depend on the
location of the DLL.

Check the above out first before you do anything else. :-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Mark Milliman" wrote in message
...
Beth:

Thanks for your quick response. I am using NAV, but I have disabled
the plug-in. Although I am not sure if it is really disabled
because I see Excel and Word scanning my add-ins when it first
starts. Office doesn't have its own virus scanner right? I just
ran Live Update manually so I'll check it out after rebooting. I
let NAV automatically update itself to keep everything current.

I am using Windows XP Home SP 2 with all the latest patches that MS
has posted through Windows Update. Likewise I am using Office 2003
SP1 (Excel 11.6355.6408). Other applications that give me problems
that use DDE are the Palm Desktop for Palm OS and Palm Quick
Install.

I am using the standard file associations created when I installed
Office 2003 to launch the programs. All I do is click on the file
icon in Explorer and the application opens without opening the
document. Explorer provides the full path of the document and the
application. I could type a command such as excel "c:\documents and
settings\Mark Milliman\My Documents\Projects\Test Workbook.xls" and
have it open successfully because it doesn't use the file
associations or DDE.

I have not tried repairing my Windows installation, and I am a bit
apprehensive to do so. Don't I lose all of my settings and have to
reinstall all the service packs and hotfixes?

You are correct that I cannot double-click on an icon in Explorer
and have it open the application AND document.

Hope this helps,
Mark


"Beth Melton" wrote in message
...
First, if you use Norton AV then it could be an option in Norton
called the "Office Plug-in" that is causing the problem. It's been
known to interpret DDE as a 'threat' and stops the data exchange.
Go to Norton Options and under the Miscellaneous section turn off
"Enable Office Plug-in".

If that isn't it did you update your virus scanner recently?

Otherwise, what version of Windows are you using? What patches do
you have installed for Windows and Office? What other applications
are encountering this issue? Can you provide an example of the
command you are using to open a file? IOW, are you specifying a
path or just the file name? And just to clarify, are referring to
the Command prompt or the Run command?

Have you also tried repairing your Windows installation?

Along with the above, are you also saying you are unable to
double-click a Word or Excel file to open it outside the
application?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Mark Milliman" wrote in message
...
This is my last resort to find help on this issue. I have the
Standard Edition of Office 2003. When I or any other user on this
machine tries to open a Word or Excel document (or any document
that uses DDE from the command line), the application opens but
the document does not. I can click to open the document once the
application is already open. I can also open it from the menu.
It does not open if I right click and select "Open with." Because
of this problem I cannot open Word or Excel attachments on e-mail
messages. I have tried the following troubleshooting steps before
posting he

1. Repair the installation
2. Unregistered and reregister the applications
3. Uncheck the "Ignore other applications" in Excel.
4. Reassociate the file types

Microsoft support gave up after 10 minutes and told me to just use
file, open from the menu. I could not dig up any articles in the
Knowledge Base or through Google. This problem is evident with
any application that uses DDE, not just Office applications. I
really would like to get this feature back because I often print
multiple Word and Excel documents from the context menu. Any
smart MVP out there know the answer to this problem?

Thanks,
Mark

Beth:

I agree with your statement in the first paragraph, but I cannot for the
life of me figure out what is running. I did a barebones startup with only
MS services, no WIN.INI or SYSTEM.INI, and the original BOOT.INI. Only 16
processes were running. I even renamed the officeav.dll to oldofficeav.old
just for good measure. Word started and scaned for viruses. I was
flabbergasted. I only have one version of officeav.dll on the machine and
that is in "c:\program files\norton antivirus." When I try to unregister it
I receive an error message which indicates that it was not registered.

I agree that there seems to be another antivirus application hooked into
Word, but how do I find it? I have no explicit antivurus application other
than NAV. Nero Burning ROM 5.5 comes with a virus scanner but it only loads
when the application is running. The only other thing I can think could be
happening is that a previous version of NAV is still hanging around, but NAV
2005 uninstalled 2004 before installing 2005. Could it be that there is a
stray registry entry envoking something in Word? I am up for your next
suggestion.

Thanks again,
Mark


"Beth Melton" wrote in message
...
If you see "Running virus scan" in the status bar when starting Word/Excel
or opening a file then either the Office Plug-in is still enabled or you
have another virus scanner that scans Office documents.

If you had a previous version of NAV installed then it's possible the DLL
for the plug-in for the previous version is enabled. It wouldn't hurt to
search for "officeav.dll" (without the quotes) and un-register it using
the following command on each Officeav.dll you may find.

Go to Start/Run and run:

regsvr32 /u "c:\program files\norton antivirus\officeav.dll"

In the above example the path for "Officeav.dll" would depend on the
location of the DLL.

Check the above out first before you do anything else. :-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Mark Milliman" wrote in message
...
Beth:

Thanks for your quick response. I am using NAV, but I have disabled the
plug-in. Although I am not sure if it is really disabled because I see
Excel and Word scanning my add-ins when it first starts. Office doesn't
have its own virus scanner right? I just ran Live Update manually so
I'll check it out after rebooting. I let NAV automatically update itself
to keep everything current.

I am using Windows XP Home SP 2 with all the latest patches that MS has
posted through Windows Update. Likewise I am using Office 2003 SP1
(Excel 11.6355.6408). Other applications that give me problems that use
DDE are the Palm Desktop for Palm OS and Palm Quick Install.

I am using the standard file associations created when I installed Office
2003 to launch the programs. All I do is click on the file icon in
Explorer and the application opens without opening the document.
Explorer provides the full path of the document and the application. I
could type a command such as excel "c:\documents and settings\Mark
Milliman\My Documents\Projects\Test Workbook.xls" and have it open
successfully because it doesn't use the file associations or DDE.

I have not tried repairing my Windows installation, and I am a bit
apprehensive to do so. Don't I lose all of my settings and have to
reinstall all the service packs and hotfixes?

You are correct that I cannot double-click on an icon in Explorer and
have it open the application AND document.

Hope this helps,
Mark


"Beth Melton" wrote in message
...
First, if you use Norton AV then it could be an option in Norton called
the "Office Plug-in" that is causing the problem. It's been known to
interpret DDE as a 'threat' and stops the data exchange. Go to Norton
Options and under the Miscellaneous section turn off "Enable Office
Plug-in".

If that isn't it did you update your virus scanner recently?

Otherwise, what version of Windows are you using? What patches do you
have installed for Windows and Office? What other applications are
encountering this issue? Can you provide an example of the command you
are using to open a file? IOW, are you specifying a path or just the
file name? And just to clarify, are referring to the Command prompt or
the Run command?

Have you also tried repairing your Windows installation?

Along with the above, are you also saying you are unable to double-click
a Word or Excel file to open it outside the application?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Mark Milliman" wrote in message
...
This is my last resort to find help on this issue. I have the Standard
Edition of Office 2003. When I or any other user on this machine tries
to open a Word or Excel document (or any document that uses DDE from
the command line), the application opens but the document does not. I
can click to open the document once the application is already open. I
can also open it from the menu. It does not open if I right click and
select "Open with." Because of this problem I cannot open Word or Excel
attachments on e-mail messages. I have tried the following
troubleshooting steps before posting he

1. Repair the installation
2. Unregistered and reregister the applications
3. Uncheck the "Ignore other applications" in Excel.
4. Reassociate the file types

Microsoft support gave up after 10 minutes and told me to just use
file, open from the menu. I could not dig up any articles in the
Knowledge Base or through Google. This problem is evident with any
application that uses DDE, not just Office applications. I really
would like to get this feature back because I often print multiple Word
and Excel documents from the context menu. Any smart MVP out there
know the answer to this problem?

Thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark,

Since you did have a previous version of NAV installed and then
uninstalled it then a registered version could still be lingering.

What if you re-register officeav.dll and then un-register it again?

Use:
regsvr32 "c:\program files\norton antivirus\officeav.dll"

Then:
regsvr32 /u "c:\program files\norton antivirus\officeav.dll"

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Mark Milliman" wrote in message
...
Beth:

I agree with your statement in the first paragraph, but I cannot for
the life of me figure out what is running. I did a barebones
startup with only MS services, no WIN.INI or SYSTEM.INI, and the
original BOOT.INI. Only 16 processes were running. I even renamed
the officeav.dll to oldofficeav.old just for good measure. Word
started and scaned for viruses. I was flabbergasted. I only have
one version of officeav.dll on the machine and that is in
"c:\program files\norton antivirus." When I try to unregister it I
receive an error message which indicates that it was not registered.

I agree that there seems to be another antivirus application hooked
into Word, but how do I find it? I have no explicit antivurus
application other than NAV. Nero Burning ROM 5.5 comes with a virus
scanner but it only loads when the application is running. The only
other thing I can think could be happening is that a previous
version of NAV is still hanging around, but NAV 2005 uninstalled
2004 before installing 2005. Could it be that there is a stray
registry entry envoking something in Word? I am up for your next
suggestion.

Thanks again,
Mark