Word and Excel cannot open files - application hangs

[Dan]

I am experiencing a problem I do not understand. This applies to Word 2007
and Excel 2007, running on Windows XP. windows and Office are up-to-date,
with all security patches applied.

With Word Open, If I try to open a file (Office Button, <open>), I receive
an hourglass that sits until I close Word with the Task Manager. No dialog
box, nothing - just an hourglass that waits. I have the same problem with
Excel 2007.

However, If I use Windows Explorer to find a file, and double click on the
filename with Word not open, Word will start and open the file.

The system is clean - no viruses, malware, etc.

Any thoughts? Do you think the Office Repair will resolve this issue or do
I need to reinstall Office?


--Dan

 

[Terry Farrell]

Dan

A 'Repair' may work but it is unlikely. It suggests a possible problem with
a bad mapped drive to me. Check in Windows Explorer that you have no
bad/inaccessible drive mappings. If that is not the problem, try the
following test in Safe Mode.

From Start, Run, type in

winword /a

and press enter. Now try opening a document from the Office button. Does it
work OK?