Slow Opening of Excel Files through a Network

Recently we having issues with opening Excel files that are located on our file / domain server (windows server 2003). All the files are slow but some are worse than others to the extent that it says the program is not responding but it will eventually open (sometimes as long as 5 minutes). If we open the file through excel and open using the open and repair option they open immediately. Most items are being opened on a terminal server (also with Windows Server 2003) but we also run into the issue if we try to open the same file through a local computer.

Does anyone have any ideas. We have tried adjusting the File Type to list the "%1" but it won't hold the removal of the Use DDE.

I also saw a post about an ACT8 Registry change and ours is already at the recommendation.

This appeared in my home network yesterday, after installing the latest batch of updates on my wife's W7 laptop. She accesses excel files on my old XP clunker. Her network link is wifi, and the whole time she waits for the file to load the wifi activity LED is flashing, so it seems to point to a verrrry slow transfer speed. The same thing in the other direction, although I don't think there were any updates for my XP machine. Both computers are running Office 2003.

Thanks for the "open and repair" tip - that works here, too.

I am sure this problem is a result of one of the updates I installed. If it affects enough people, hopefully MS will push out a fix pretty soon.

Hi Dee MN,

You can try to disable the Automatic Search for Network Printers and Folders and check if it has sorted out the problem by following the steps below:

1.Click Start, click Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes, and click Folder Options to open the Folder Options dialog box.

2.Click the View tab.

3.In the Advanced Settings list, click to clear the Automatically Search for Network Folders and Printers check box.

4.Click OK.

Hello

uninstall KB2502786 and kb2541025 and test...
i have the same prob and i solved with this "technique" :-)

kep me informed
thanks

Hi

We had the same problem last couple of days. Users trying to access Excel 2003 accross the network found it unusable with constant network hangs.

We found just removing (KB2541025) resolved the problem.

Sorry i stand corrected the problem raised it's ugly head again today & i removed (KB2502786) as well & now all is ok so you do need to remove both

Thanks everyone for your help. The culprit seemed to be the 2 patches. We are still pending a reboot on the server but it worked on local machines once both of the patches were removed.

This worked like a charm for us. Although it might ask for the Office CD to remove one of the patches.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tranquille

Hello

uninstall KB2502786 and kb2541025 and test...
i have the same prob and i solved with this "technique" :-)

kep me informed
thanks

---

That worked like a charm! Thank you very much. I went from having a user at a remote job site say it was taking hours to open a spreadsheet over the vpn to it opening in under 5 seconds after removing both KBs. This worked so well that I actually just made this account just to say thank you and offer a couple tips.

A couple notes that might save people some time.

1. 1) Both KBs were located under Office 2003 update list and say EXCEL at the end.
   
2. 2) KB2502786 didn't seem to show up until after KB2541025 was removed.

I think I noticed that one of the patches didn't show up until the other one was deleted. But at the time I just thought I over looked it..

Thank you very much all.
This worked so well that I actually just made this account just to say thank you like Cid X.

Have a nice day without Microsoft update problems...

We had the same issue. According to Microsoft:
o http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623
There are 3 things you can do, upgrade from Office 2003 as this is the only affected product, store files locally, or apply a HKCU reg fix.

In order to deploy this globally we copied the following admin settings into notepad, saved as an .adm & imported the template into Group policy.

I signed up purely to say thank you Tranquille for the information about removing both of these patches. This really fixed it my problem, instantly. Just worked perfectly.

Thanks so much.

I also registered here just to say thanks for the info. I spent about 5 hours troublshooting this for a client. I can't believe they don't automatically apply the fix to 2003 users. My client had a 25MB Excel spreadsheet that was taking about 15 minutes to open. Does anyone sell one of those stress dolls in the shape of an MS programmer? :)

Our office has almost come to a halt in the last few days because of this problem. Not one of us is a "techie" and we have been in turmoil. I carried out your suggested solution. The problem has disappeared immediately. We are now literally "jumping for joy" in the office. Grateful Thanks from Grateful Thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Corinne411

We had the same issue. According to Microsoft:
o http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623
There are 3 things you can do, upgrade from Office 2003 as this is the only affected product, store files locally, or apply a HKCU reg fix.

In order to deploy this globally we copied the following admin settings into notepad, saved as an .adm & imported the template into Group policy.

---

Is this link for the same issue? Although similar, the MS article you have linked is talking about a different KB number to the ones that are being discussed here.

Can anyone confirm if the above MS resolution worked for them without manually removing the 2 KB patches?

Thanks,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by systematic

Is this link for the same issue? Although similar, the MS article you have linked is talking about a different KB number to the ones that are being discussed here.

Can anyone confirm if the above MS resolution worked for them without manually removing the 2 KB patches?

Thanks,

---

Yes, the solution worked after removing the 2 KB security updates from the machines which were KB2502786 and KB2541025. However, a similar KB2509503 patch was also problematic in a very similar ways to the above patches, so removing either one of the three's (if present) solves this issue, check this thread for better solutions - http://forums.techarena.in/ms-office-support/749154.htm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by einstein_007

Yes, the solution worked after removing the 2 KB security updates from the machines which were KB2502786 and KB2541025. However, a similar KB2509503 patch was also problematic in a very similar ways to the above patches, so removing either one of the three's (if present) solves this issue, check this thread for better solutions - http://forums.techarena.in/ms-office-support/749154.htm

---

Einstein,

Are you saying removing only 1 of the 3 patches you mentioned above resolves the issue? I removed 2541025 and this alone did not do anything for me. However, removing both, 2509503/2541025 worked perfectly.

The MS Article states : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623

After you install MS11-021 and the Office File Validation (OFV) Add-in for Office 2003 (KB 2501584), workbooks stored in a network location open slower over the network in Excel 2003 than they did without the OFV installed. The decrease in performance depends on the size of the workbook and bandwidth of the network and in some scenarios can seem to hang Excel.

The fix references 2501584 and 2502786 (MS11-021) (as highlighted in BOLD above). BUT does not say anything about:

2509503 (MS11-023)
2541025 (MS11-045).

What am I missing here?

Thanks,

Hi systematic,

There were different solutions for this particular issue and many people solved it by removing different kind of KB security patches, as you can read from the thread mentioned in my previous post. In either cases, if it still doesnt solve your issue then you can contact microsoft from here - http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/default.aspx

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by einstein_007

Hi systematic,

There were different solutions for this particular issue and many people solved it by removing different kind of KB security patches, as you can read from the thread mentioned in my previous post. In either cases, if it still doesnt solve your issue then you can contact microsoft from here - http://www.microsoft.com/worldwide/default.aspx

---

Thanks buddy,

I found that the first FIXIT solution did not work for me however, the 2nd FIXIT solution (registry) worked fine.

I have to conduct some additional tests to be perfectly sure. I will report back soon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Corinne411

We had the same issue. According to Microsoft:
o http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623
There are 3 things you can do, upgrade from Office 2003 as this is the only affected product, store files locally, or apply a HKCU reg fix.

In order to deploy this globally we copied the following admin settings into notepad, saved as an .adm & imported the template into Group policy.

---

This was the best fix for my situation. I did have to add extra keys to my systems but it worked wonderfully. Thank you for the information!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by systematic

Is this link for the same issue? Although similar, the MS article you have linked is talking about a different KB number to the ones that are being discussed here.

Can anyone confirm if the above MS resolution worked for them without manually removing the 2 KB patches?

Thanks,

---

I have been experiencing this issue - first I want to say thanks for this post pointing me in the right direction to resolve this, and to let you know that although the MS article is discussing another KB patch, applying the registry key fix mentioned does work (so far only tested on one machine, but intending to check on numerous other machines which are exhibiting the issue).

Jevon

Jevon,
The registry modification works. I tested on a PC before I made the change to a user that was experiencing this exact problem. User is just sailing along with their Excel files now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Corinne411

In order to deploy this globally we copied the following admin settings into notepad, saved as an .adm & imported the template into Group policy.

---

Hi,

I'd be really grateful if you could elaborate a little on what exactly you copied into notepad please?

I'm looking to deploy this fix too.. having installed the Office File Verification globally a few weeks ago :(

Thanks in advance
Alex.

Finding this thread and the fix it suggests has just made my life so much easier... THANK YOU!

There's nothing worse than having a gang of angry end-users waiting for your to fix to an illusive problem so that they can get on with their work!

Al.

Some advice please guys.

Ok the registry fix does work in an ideal environment but not in mine.

My environment - Users do not have local admin rights and registry access from their limited accounts has been disabled via GPO.

Prior to applying the reg fix, I noticed all user accounts were having the problem including the local admin account. By problem I mean, Excel stalling when accessing a workbook over the network. After installing the reg fix whilst logged in as a local admin, the issue was resolved upon reboot for THIS ACCOUNT PROFILE ONLY.

The fix does not stick for all other accounts. When logged in as a limited user,
the issue is still there.

How do I get around this easily?

I can manually uninstall the 2 patches from a local admin profile but when you have 60 users complaining about the same thing, this method becomes a nightmare.

Hi,

I was going to suggest writing a script which uses the RUNAS command to enable the users to run the fix in their profile as an administrator.

Unfortunately I tried this manually.. and it applies the fix to the administrator profile instead of the user that's logged-on :(

Luckily for me, the problem appears to be contained to users in the accounts department (who use 15MB Excel sheets!) so I fixed the problem manually on the accounts dept PCs:

1. logged-on remotely to their PCs as an administrator
2. Added them as a local PC administrator.
3. logged-in as that user and ran the reg fix
4. Logged back in as an administrator and removed the user's admin rights

I know it's long-winded, but that’s how I solved it on a small scale.

Another solution, albeit not very professional, is to create a temporary Admin group, add all of your 60 users into that group and set the reg fix to run under a Group Policy or a log-on script.

At the end of the day, most users won't realise they have admin privileges in the day it takes to roll-out the fix (you just have to make sure that you take a note of anybody absent from the office that day - their PCs won't be updated).

I appreciate that only applies to the individual profile, but it may be a useful stop-gap solution. I'd also be greatly interested in seeing how the fox can be globally applied to any user that logs-onto the account using the reg fix, (without removing the updates).

Al.

There is an small tip that you can try on this. I tried this and it really worked for me. I have a vpn connection setup where the lan files are extremely slow. To fix them out Run folder option and then click on View. In that you have to remove the tick from Automatically search for network printers and folders and then click on ok. Before doing that exit all your office applications. Then run excel and go in Tools > options. In General untick the file Recently use file list.

Hi,
I had the same problems and just found out that the all stuff is due to another windows update called "file validation". There is an easy fix from MS at this address:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623
then you can reapply the security fixes for Excel
Maura

So the Ultimate Solution is:

Set to ZERO registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation\EnableOnLoad

If you don't have it, just create it, it's a DWORD.

No need for patch uninstalling and administrator privileges.

Thanks to all. :-)