When you double-click a .doc file to open it using Word 2003 or Word 2007, the following error may occur and the document does not open:
However, you may be able to open the file using the File/Open… option within Microsoft Word.
The above symptom was observed in my client’s PC. The file association for .DOC appeared correct when inspected using FileExtInfo tool. The error sounds as if DDE is not working correctly or some program is interrupting it. Here is what which worked in my client’s PC running Windows Vista and Word 2003.
Instructions for Windows Vista (also applies to Windows 2000/XP)
1. Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER:
2. Navigate to the following key and backup the key:
3. Right-click the ddeexec key and choose Delete. Click Yes to confirm.
4. Navigate to the following key:
5. Double-click (default) and set its value data to:
For Word 2003
For Word 2007
6. Exit the Registry Editor.
Instructions for Windows XP
In Windows XP, you can use the Folder Options applet to disable DDE for a file type action. Here are the instructions:
1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Click Tools, Folder Options, select the File Types tab.
3. Select .DOC file type from the list
4. Click Advanced
5. Select open and click Edit
6. Uncheck Use DDE checkbox and click OK.
7. Click OK, OK.
If that above does not help, check if one of the Office Add-ins is causing the error.
SEE ALSO
Excel opens without displaying a workbook
You cannot open a Word 2007 document or a Word 2003 document from Windows Explorer
How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word
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Thank you…it worked!
Great job :)
Wow… Thank You… Worked like a charm… Great
I too had this ‘cannot find file’ Word problem, and solved it by accident.
My 1.8 GHz Phenom X4 64-bit system with Vista Home Premium 64 suddenly had this ‘unable to find’ problem. I lived with this for several weeks.
For other reasons, I wanted to boost my overall system performance without spending $$$ for a new CPU, so went looking for software solutions to get around this locked CPU – no overclocking allowed via BIOS. I found and installed K10STAT which worked fine. Now I was running at 2.5 GHz high and 1.1 GHz slow; this system throttles down to save power when the fast speed is not needed, using less power and keeping things quiet. Checking, I found the CPU temperature went up about 5 degrees F, and this was well within the chip’s limits.
Much to my surprise, the problem with MS Word not finding the document was totally gone!
My conclusion: one of the automatic Vista 64 updates increased the ‘find the file’ processing time, and this caused my Word 2003 to time out before the OS got there with the file. With the increased CPU speed, this was gone. Whether this is correct or not, I’ll never know. But the problem is gone!
Note that K10STAT only works, I’ve read, with AMD CPUs. Maybe overclocking an Intel CPU would solve the problem.
I had the same problem and could not fix it. Finally, I did. How?
My mistake was that I was uninstalling the Office and then installing it, with some old Office registry entries still present. The uninstall function does not clear all Office registry entries.
Here is what to do:
1. Uninstall office
2. Go to regedit
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft
4. Right-click and delete the ‘Office’ key
Then,
1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft
2. Right-click and delete the ‘Office’ key
Then, if you have one, run the registry cleaner, for example Registry Mechanic.
Then, fresh-install the Office.
This should do. It solved the problem for me. I tried many solutions recommended on internet, but nothing else worked.
Help!!! I deleted ddeexec as per instructions and now I cannot open any of my existing Word files. How do I reverse it? I can’t find information on this anywhere. I am using Vista.
Hi Guys, Just want to say thank you,
After 18 months and finally getting sick of this error message, i found your site.
This works perfectly (after also deleting the command key)
Thanks a million,
P
Running Windows Vista and Word 2007.
Same failure symptoms: Can open files from within Word, but receive “Windows cannot find file …” when trying to open the file outside of Word.
I navigated like instructed and deleted the ddeexec key and also modified the Command/default key.
This still did not work until I also deleted the Command/command key. This key had very strange character sequences that did not make any sense. Not sure how it was there or why it was modified to garbled character strings.
The important thing is Thank You! Working on this issue for two days until I stumbled across your solution!
But I WANT to always run Word as admin, is there a way to get around this “file not found” issue?