In the past several days I’ve been getting a lot of calls about users not being able open Microsoft Office files such as Word, Excel, etc. This only appears to be affecting Office 2010 users running Windows 7. If you are experiencing the same issue and your Microsoft Office 2010 files have an icon that resemble an orange rectangular box, you have the issue. Do not remove the update, just do the following:
For Excel, right-click on one of the files, choose “open with”, choose default program, and select “Microsoft application virtualization dde launcher” OR Microsoft Excel depending which is listed. Be sure to check the box that says “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file”. This should open the file and fix the association. Repeat the same steps for Word, PowerPoint, etc. The only step that is different is for Word you will select “Microsoft application virtualization dde launcher” OR Microsoft Word depending which is listed. For PowerPoint you would use “Microsoft application virtualization dde launcher” OR Microsoft PowerPoint.
If the above doesn’t work you have three options. From easiest, to hardest..
Go to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs > Associate File Type or Protocol. For DOC or DOCX select Microsoft Word. You will need to do this for each Microsoft Office file type. For Excel the file types are XLSX and XLS. For a complete list of Office file types click HERE.
2) Repair your Microsoft Office Installation via instructions found HERE.
3) Remove Microsoft Office from your computer, and reinstall it. (Requires Office disk)