Error msg when opening DOCX from File Explorer - but it opens ?

Sometimes when I double click a DOCX in file explorer to open it in Word 2010 I get this message



But Word opens the file OK. If I close Word and double click it again it's OK. It's not a particular DOCX, it happens on any DOCX. But it appears to be any DOCX on a drive I haven't accessed for a while (as in hours). Its an internal data only HDD, I've run chkdsk on it - no errors, and checked SMART stats with DiskInfo - reports GOOD.

I'm wondering if the disk is spinning down, and a recent Windows or Word patch isn't waiting long enough for it to spin up again. Strange that it doesn't have an error number.

I've only noticed this with DOCX files, but I can't think of a program that takes as long to open a file as Word takes.

pepanee said:

Try to Repair Microsoft Office.

I doubt it will make any difference, Word is working perfectly.

However, I've done as you have suggested, but I won't know if its worked until tomorrow, I'm using the drive for the rest of today.

It only happens if the drive has not been accessed for a couple of hours.

pjd

Berton said:

Is it the same drive Windows and Office are installed on? If not, i.e. Office or your file storage is on a different drive, could be the Power Options in Control Panel are interfering by turning it off and your access is turning it back on but has to locate the file.

Office is installed on the System drive (C: SSD) the DOCX's are on the Data drive (D: HDD).

You're thinking what I'm thinking, that the drive has gone to sleep. I just looked at the advanced power settings, the drive had a 10 min sleep time, I would have set that years ago, I've always sleeped non system drives after 10 minutes idle. I've set it Never - we'll see what happens.

But why has it just started to be a problem, this rig is 8 years old and nothing has changed except Windows and a few applications since I installed the SSD a couple of years ago. And why only Word - Excel and Visio and other programs are fine

Thought - the spellchecker exclusion files and some add-on control files are also on D: but they've been there for years, and addons haven't been updated in ages. If the sleep Never 'fixes' it, I'll put it back to 10 minutes and investigate the exclusion files and add-on control files. Actually - the error message doesn't look like a Windows or Office msg - so maybe it comes from one of the add-ons. That might explain why Word opens the file OK.

I hate computer mysteries

pjd

Sleep Never didn't fix it. The spellcheck exclusions were present and correct, and the add-ons had reported for duty.

I now think it only throws the error on opening first DOCX after a reboot. I shut down at end of day, and reboot at start of day.

4 now I'm stumped, but seeing as it's not critical I'll ponder upon it.

pjd

@pepanee - you were on the right track

I found a blog in which a commenter suggested to try deleting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Data, and then do the Repair Office and Reboot - it worked :)

Unfortunately I didn't bookmark the blog url, and I got to it via a long chain of links - nothing in browser history rings a bell, it might have something like Greg's Office Tips. All I seem to lose was some window sizes and I assume other non-critical stuff. And of course I lost the curious error message, which allegedly relates to legacy DDE features. Weird.

I came across the same issue.