OPENING DOCX FILES THROUGH IE 6
Hi all!
The security gods in my place of work removed (in their infinite lask of wisdom - well, this is government) 2 tabs from Internet options window for IE: program and security. I have a user who is having difficulty opening docx files from internet based appl. (Siebel); it opens fine outside of web. It opens fine on my PC and other users PCs. When I log on his PC, I also have same problem - when you click on docx file, it is immediately treated as zip file and you get pop up window with only "save" option but no "open" option. Hence he has to save it to the desktop and then open it. I have made sure that all the file/program associations are correct in windows for docx (Microsoft Word XML Document). Sooo, I am wondering if somebody can show me a "back door" of fixing this - in registry. I have seen only few posts re. this "zip" issue with docx file and each time I was directed to go to Internet options and click on the Program tab and then try to associate docx with word or something to that effect. I appreciate any help. :)
Mickey
Software/Hardware used:
The security gods in my place of work removed (in their infinite lask of wisdom - well, this is government) 2 tabs from Internet options window for IE: program and security. I have a user who is having difficulty opening docx files from internet based appl. (Siebel); it opens fine outside of web. It opens fine on my PC and other users PCs. When I log on his PC, I also have same problem - when you click on docx file, it is immediately treated as zip file and you get pop up window with only "save" option but no "open" option. Hence he has to save it to the desktop and then open it. I have made sure that all the file/program associations are correct in windows for docx (Microsoft Word XML Document). Sooo, I am wondering if somebody can show me a "back door" of fixing this - in registry. I have seen only few posts re. this "zip" issue with docx file and each time I was directed to go to Internet options and click on the Program tab and then try to associate docx with word or something to that effect. I appreciate any help. :)
Mickey
Software/Hardware used:
ASKED:
March 24, 2010 6:59 PM
UPDATED:
May 5, 2011 8:07 PM
Answer Wiki:
The document has been written using Word 2007. Google the following:
Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats
load this onto the PC and it will make the documents readable.
To see all answers submitted to the Answer Wiki: View Answer History.
Ross, thank you for the speedy response.
The Word on user’s PC (and for that matter, all my users and my PC) does not have any problem openinga docx (docxml) file. It is only a problem when user tries to open it through web based appl. This is only the case with this one PC. The user can only open the file by saving it to desktop first, then he has to right click and choose open; the file than opens fine. That is why I need to troubleshoot his IE settings. But I can only do this in registry.
I am not sure how the MO compatibility pack for Word would help, since Word is not the problem here.
Thank you again for the help
Mickey
If associations are correct and if security settings are set to trust the site in question then the issue is the MIME settings on the server serving the Siebel app. UIE checks this setting to see what application should open the docx file. If there is no such setting, the first few bytes of the file are checked which reveals it is a ZIP file (and in faxt Office 2007 files are a zipped up collection of xml files) and behaves accordingly.
If the app will work under Firefox (which does not “sniff” the file in the same way). If the docx file now opens, the problem is confirmed.
If the server is not accessible and IE is the desired browser, a registry “kludge” is to disable the sniffing. Change the values of the following registry keys to 0 :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMainFeatureControlFEATURE_MIME_HANDLING
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMainFeatureControlFEATURE_MIME_SNIFFING
Information from blogs/forum answers by Brad Saide
Sorry, should add to foregoing answer that it is the iexplore.exe value in each of these keys that is xhanged from 1 to zero.
I have tested this in IE8 only. It IS a kludge.
Bob, I was away for a while. I just saw you answer and it looks just what I need. I will look into it, providing I have time today. Today is crazy at work.
Thank you very much for help!!!
Mickey
Bob, I went to those registry keys on my PC (where docx file open fine in Siebel) and the values in all cases were 1, not 0.
Since it works fine with those values, I am hesitant to go to PC where there is a problem, and change values from 1 to 0.
What do you think?
Thank you,
Mickey
Mickey
It will not do any irrevocable harm to change it – it should allow you to open the file. If it changes any other web behaviours in an undesirable way, it is quick and easy to change it back.
If you were to ask me my personal preference, as “kludges” always make me uneasy, I would encourage the user to always right click on the links and do a “Save as …” (changing extension back from zip to docx if IE tries to use zip). I tend to do this anyway as I am old fashioned enough to want to work offline!
Bob
Any update on this?
Jaymz,
No change. Still a problem.
Mickey
Code is vb.net but I imagine other languages/technologies have similar functionality.
Create a new aspx page and in the page load event add the following:
Try
Response.ContentType = “application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document”
Response.BinaryWrite(System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes([PHYSICAL LOCATION OF DOCX FILE]))
Catch ex As Exception
‘ do nothing
Finally
Response.End()
End Try
Link to the aspx page instead of the .docx file.