A few days ago I was planning on going through some of my old office files and deleting out any files that were out dated, or I did not need anymore. But every time I tried to open a file I received this nice error from Office 2003 & 2007 saying
You are attempting to open a file type that is blocked by your registry policy setting.
And
You are attempting to open a file that was created in an earlier version of Microsoft Office. This file type is blocked from opening in this version by your registry policy setting.
So after trying to open up two files and receiving this error, I head over to Google to do some research, and see what is causing this error. After a little while of looking around, I find a Microsoft page explaining how to fix it. The fix involves several registry changes to stop Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint from producing this error.
Well to make life easier for the next person that has this error message, and to avoid having to play around in the registry, which can cause some serious problems, I decided to make a registry patch that you just open up, and it will automatically add all the necessary registry entries in a few seconds for you.
Note: Make sure you have Microsoft Office closed before you open the file
Installation
- Download the file for your Office version, and then open the downloaded file.
- When asked if you are sure if you want to add the information, click yes.
- Now you will no longer receive the error message about opening up documents in office.
Download Office Registry Fix -
If your security settings do not allow you to download .reg files, here is the file in Zip format.
These registry fixes are in reference to Microsoft Help & Support website, Article - You receive an error message when you try to open a file type that was blocked by your registry policy settings in….
Microsoft Word -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922849/
Microsoft Excel
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922848/
Microsoft Powerpoint
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922847/
17 Comments
THANK YOU
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My pleasure, glad it helped you out.
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big help
PG
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Thanks for the fix, I wish I’d found it before I did it the hard way (with typos included)
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Thanks: I had no idea how to do this!
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Many Thanks works fine
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thankyou so much!!!
friggin mikerowsoft
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Thanks very much for your research and making this fix available.
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Thanks very much for this fix! This has been a long-standing problem for me, and I was too puzzled by the Microsoft explanation (and busy at work) to effect the change myself. Perhaps Microsoft could hire you so you could explain to them what used to be known as ‘upward compatibility’.
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Glad I could help out by posting this fix, but yes it would be nice if Microsoft would think ahead before getting rid of the ability to read older files from office. I really don’t know why they removed the ability to read old doc files. /shrug
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I ran your fix, but I still have the same issue after. Do I have to reboot after adding those lines to the registry?
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Nope, you shouldn’t need to restart your computer. What version of office and windows are you using?
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works like magic,,
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I applied the patch and…. problem solved.
Well done guys.
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This worked and you’re my hero. Please let me bear your love child.
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fantastic fix!
good work!
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YAY!! Super easy even for a non-techie.
I just downloaded the ZIP, saved, opened, trusted it and it worked zippy-skppie! No restart, no nuthin’ … then just opened up my darn ol’ file right and perfect first try!
Thank you! Thank you! I bow low to you, your wizened ancestors and all good, smart and “in service” - techie people on earth.
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