"There was a problem sending the command to the program" error message is a common error message which so many users have encountered while opening excel and word files that were created in older versions of MS Office in newer versions. In these cases most of the users try uninstalling and reinstalling office but it still doesn't get resolved because the actual problem is not with the installation of Office, its with the Windows registry. I have seen in microsoft support websites that people are facing this problem and have spent hours to get a working solution but still no luck. Even the troubleshooting steps provided in the microsoft KB article doesn't help at all.
Well, here is a simple 2 minutes resolution for this problem and you can easily follow the steps given below to fix "There was a problem sending the command to the program" error in Excel and Word.
If the error message appears on opening .xls and .xlsx files, follow these steps:
> Open RUN by pressing Windows+R keys together and type regedit and hit enter to open registry editor.
> Now locate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\Shell\Open\Command (for .xlsx files)
> Now double click on the string (Default) and change /dde to /e "%1" and click OK.
> Now locate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\Shell\Open\Command (for .xls files)
> Now double click on the string (Default) and change /dde to /e "%1" and click OK.
> Restart your computer and try opening your files, they should be opened now.
Note: Before restarting the computer, you may perform a quick or online repair to office if you want to fix file association problems and make sure this issue is resolved permanently.
If the error message appears on opening .doc and .docx files, follow these steps:
> Open RUN by pressing Windows+R keys together and type regedit and hit enter to open registry editor.
> Now locate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8\Shell\Open\Command (for .docx files)
> Now double click on the string (Default) and change /dde to /e "%1" and click OK.
> Now locate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\Shell\Open\Command (for .doc files)
> Now double click on the string (Default) and change /dde to /e "%1" and click OK.
That's it. For more tips and tricks, keep visiting pctricksguru.
