Getting Program.xls cannot be found error on Microsoft Excel

[Jagjeet-J]

Every time Excel opens I get an error message that advises it cannot find Program.xls. After clicking OK on this error a second error comes up advising it cannot find 'Files\Microsoft.xls. This occurs no matter how I open Excel. If I log in as Administrator on the local domain I do not get the error. I have Administrator rights on my computer both through the local domain and the Main domain. Any ideas or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Alfons]

This is generally caused by not having double quotes around the shortcut command line. You can try the usually fixes. First click on Tools > Options > General uncheck > Ignore other Applications. Exit Excel and try again. This might work. If this doesn't work try to re-register Excel. Close Excel first and On the Windows Taskbar. The methods to fix them are :

1. Click on Start > Run type excel.exe /unregserver > OK.
2. Click on Start > Run type excel.exe /regserver > OK.
3. Do not forget to add the space between exe and /regserver

You might have to designate a full path to excel.exe. In that case click on Start > Run and type C:\yourpath\excel.exe /regserver > OK. If the above still does not work then there are more steps you can try.

Go to Start > Settings > Folder > Options > File Types. Scroll down to MS Excel Worksheet. Then if running Win98 OS Edit> select "Open" and Edit. If using WinXP OS you would scroll down to .XLS then Advanced > Open > Edit. In Command line the path should be similar to this : C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE\OFFICE\EXCEL.EXE" /e (delete the <sp>/e if - you want Book1 to open. You must have the double quotes. Below have "use DDE" checked and this in the DDE message box....[open("%1")]. Application should read Excel.

[Jagjeet-J]

I had already tried the unreg and re reg. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app. I tried deleting and recreating the file association as admin domain following your suggestions and that did not work either. I have done a search on my system and these two files do not exists even in hidden or system folders. Any other ideas?

[Alfons]

No more suggestions from me. At least one of those three should have solved the problem, so I am now out of ideas. If there are no double quotes in the command line, you will get the messages you see. Try opening from Start>Run by entering this : C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE.

[Weslee]

I have exactly the same problem, and the suggested fixes do not work. The messages are displayed whenever excel is opened, be it via a menu, short cut or file. It started after changing the domain, so it could be a permissions problem. The two messages refer to 'crogram.xls' and 'Files\Microsoft.xls'. Excel is in 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11' and the two files are first two space seperted parts of the path, which is another clue. I think excel is getting confused and is trying to use files that do not
exist.

[Bontu]

Check the Add-Ins. To check that click on Tools and then look for AddIns. This might have valid paths for your issue.

[Weslee]

I found and fixed the problem - at least on my computer. The problem is with the Add-ins when they start up. The offending Registry keys can be found he : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\E xcel\Options. And each Addin has a Name of "OPEN#"; for example, OPEN, OPEN1, OPENn. I have four Addin's opening this way and Two of them do not have the double quotes ("") around the Addin path. Here were mine:

• OPEN1 C:\Program Files\MSOffice\OFFICE11\Library\Analysis\ATPVBAEN. XLA
• OPEN2 C:\Program Files\MSOffice\OFFICE11\Library\HTML.XLA
• I wrapped the command and file names in double quotes like this:
• OPEN1 "C:\Program Files\MSOffice\OFFICE11\Library\Analysis\ATPVBAEN. XLA"
• OPEN2 "C:\Program Files\MSOffice\OFFICE11\Library\HTML.XLA"