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balken

balken

Well-Known Member
Apr 14, 2006
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Okay, MS Excel experts, I have come upon a problem that I have not experienced previously. I am unable to open any Excel files. When I attempt to open an email attachment through Firefox, I get an error message:

"xxx.xls could not be opened, because the associated helper file does not exist. Change the association in your preferences."

If I try the same thing with MS IE, I get this message:

"Windows cannot find C:\Users.blah.blah.blah.xls. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again."

When I try to open a file off of my system, I get this:

"Windows cannot find C:\blah.blah.blah.xls. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again."


This is probably something simple, but I can't seem to solve it. BTW, I am running Office 2007 with Vista OS.
 
Last edited:
Not sure, but it sounds like the attachment is actually a link to the file rather than the actual file. If the file contains a file path, that link would be looking on your local machine or server for that path and file.

I'm not 100% sure on that; sorry I can't be of any other help :confused:
 
balken said:
Okay, MS Excel experts, I have come upon a problem that I have not experienced previously. I am unable to open any Excel files. When I attempt to open an email attachment through Firefox, I get an error message:

"xxx.xls could not be opened, because the associated helper file does not exist. Change the association in your preferences."

If I try the same thing with MS IE, I get this message:

"Windows cannot find C:\Users.blah.blah.blah.xls. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again."

This is probably something simple, but I can't seem to solve it. BTW, I am running Office 2007 with Vista OS.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you have somehow unassociated .xls files from Excel. Try saving the file, then manually opening it from within Excel. Unfortunately I can't help you with Vista as I'm still running XP. If it's the same as XP, open Windows Explorer, go to Tools...Folder Options...File Types and change .xls to Excel.
 
balken said:
Okay, MS Excel experts, I have come upon a problem that I have not experienced previously. I am unable to open any Excel files. When I attempt to open an email attachment through Firefox, I get an error message:

"xxx.xls could not be opened, because the associated helper file does not exist. Change the association in your preferences."

If I try the same thing with MS IE, I get this message:

"Windows cannot find C:\Users.blah.blah.blah.xls. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again."

This is probably something simple, but I can't seem to solve it. BTW, I am running Office 2007 with Vista OS.
Click to expand...

Spreadsheet for your porn collection?:biglaugh:
 
balken said:
Okay, MS Excel experts, I have come upon a problem that I have not experienced previously. I am unable to open any Excel files. When I attempt to open an email attachment through Firefox, I get an error message:

"xxx.xls could not be opened, because the associated helper file does not exist. Change the association in your preferences."

If I try the same thing with MS IE, I get this message:

"Windows cannot find C:\Users.blah.blah.blah.xls. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again."

This is probably something simple, but I can't seem to solve it. BTW, I am running Office 2007 with Vista OS.
Click to expand...

Maybe you messed up the association with the .xls file type. Go for Windows Explorer and find a .xls file. Do a right click on the file name and click properties. At the top the General tab it should say something like File Type and File Opens With. Make sure it says file opens with Excel. If it doesn't, hit the Change button and find Excel and reassociate the program to the extention.
 
Cyclone90 said:
I'm guessing you have somehow unassociated .xls files from Excel. Try saving the file, then manually opening it from within Excel. Unfortunately I can't help you with Vista as I'm still running XP. If it's the same as XP, open Windows Explorer, go to Tools...Folder Options...File Types and change .xls to Excel.
Click to expand...

Ignore my method. What he said is the right way to do it.

I think what I said will only reassociate the one file and not all .xls files.
 
Great suggestions everyone, but same problem. I saved an Excel file to the desktop, checked the Properties to confirm it was and .xls file that Opens With Excel. All good. I try to open it and Excel launches and I get:

"Windows cannot find C:\blah.blah.blah.xls. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again."

I am totally confused.
 
balken said:
Great suggestions everyone, but same problem. I saved an Excel file to the desktop, checked the Properties to confirm it was and .xls file that Opens With Excel. All good. I try to open it and Excel launches and I get:

"Windows cannot find C:\blah.blah.blah.xls. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and try again."

I am totally confused.
Click to expand...

Is this all Excel files or just the attachment file? Can you create a dummy one and re-open it?
 
Cyclone90 said:
Is this all Excel files or just the attachment file? Can you create a dummy one and re-open it?
Click to expand...

Okay, this is strange. I created a new file and saved it to my desktop. When I try to open the file from the desktop (either double click or right click - Open With) I get an error message. When I open the same file from within Excel (Menu - Open), no problem.
 
balken said:
Okay, this is strange. I created a new file and saved it to my desktop. When I try to open the file from the desktop (either double click or right click - Open With) I get an error message. When I open the same file from within Excel (Menu - Open), no problem.
Click to expand...

This still sounds like an extension/association problem, but unfortunately I'm not sure how to fix it at this point if you've done all the above recommendations.
 
Cyclone90 said:
This still sounds like an extension/association problem, but unfortunately I'm not sure how to fix it at this point if you've done all the above recommendations.
Click to expand...

I've tried everything in this thread to no avail. Oh, well. Thanks for everyone's help!
 
balken said:
I've tried everything in this thread to no avail. Oh, well. Thanks for everyone's help!
Click to expand...


Does excel start on its own? If you pop the office 2007 disc in you should be able to do the "repair" option to fix the install.
 
When you save a file using almost any program it doesn't actually save the file under the file name. It saves what is called a pointer which then points to the file. They do this to compress space, I know it sounds backwards but it works. Anyway it sounds like your Excel program lost this vital folder and it doesn't know where to look for the file. It knows the file exist it just can't find it. The only real easy to fix this without going through lines of code is to just reinstall the app. This can be hard since most computers came with it on it. You might want to go to Windows for help on this, another option is to look up the error message on the Windows website and see what they tell you to do.
 
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