IE opens docx/pptx in winzip instead of word and powrpnt

[moorejd]

If I open a public webpage like http://people.musc.edu/~moorejd/

When I try to open or save a .docx or .pptx file from an IE7 webpage IE7
tries to save/open the files as a winzip file. I removed winzip and that has
no effect. This is happening on WINXP PRO and vista enterprise machines.
Is there a simple fix for this....?

Jim Moore
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Jay Freedman]

This is a configuration that has to be set for the web server that
hosts your page. Many public web servers haven't been reconfigured yet
to assign a MIME type to the new Office extensions (.docx, .xlsx,
..pptx, and the macro-enabled "m" variants).

The new formats really are zip files internally. When there is nothing
listed for the extension in the web server's MIME map, it uses the
binary signature at the start of the file to determine what it is, and
that says it's a zip.

To verify this, try downloading the Word2007Datasheet.docx file from
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA102051271033.aspx. Because
Microsoft's servers have (obviously) been configured properly for
this, IE will download it with the .docx extension.

As a workaround until your webmaster gets the message, you can
download the file to disk with the .zip extension and then rename it
to .docx or whatever. Then you can double-click it to start the
correct application.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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