Office Will Not Open A Document on Double Click (Open)

A Collection of Articles with some Possible Fixes

What follows are the directions obtained by opening the link supplied by Jay
Freedman:

In some situations, the above (selecting what program to use to open Word
files) will not fix the problem, which is attributable to a registry entry
associated with the particular document type. Should that occur:

From the Windows Start Menu > Run command, type Regedit to open the registry
editor.

Let's consider the two most likely document types - Word document (doc) and
Word 2007 document (docx) and the relevant registry entries which are:

Word 97-2003 doc format

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8\shell\Open

Word 2007 docx format

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open

In both cases the ddexec sub key will have a value of

[REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen("%1")]

and the command sub key will have a value of

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde %1

It is the %1 at the end of the command sub key that is the problem. Either
edit the key to remove the 1% or surround it with quotes thus

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde

or

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE" /n /dde "%1"

I just checked all this out and determined that my registry command lines
are correct (there's no `%1' at the end of the strings) so that's not the
problem.
Thanks anyway for that suggestion. Got any other
ideas?...................

That's a symptom of a Word Data Key corruption - usually because Word has
been running when updates are installed.
 
Run Regedit and expand by double-clicking to the key below. With DATA
selected, press DELETE. Word will automatically recreate a new key when it
is restarted.
 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Data
 
Symptoms of Data Key corruption include:
 
   •    The mouse does not work when you use Word.
   •    You cannot open a Word document from the Search window in Windows
Vista.
   •    You cannot open a Word document from Windows Desktop Search.
   •    Word crashes when you try to start or exit Word.
   •    Word crashes when you open the Open dialog box.
   •    Word crashes when you save a document.
   •    Word crashes when you close a document.
 
If you feel uncomfortable editing the registry yourself, Microsoft have a
fix that will do this for you.
http://support.microsoft. com/kb/940791 and press FixIt

1. Run regedit.

2. Un-associate the xlsx file from the registry because it runs the wrong file.
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts and find .xlsx key, under OpenWithList you must sort the sequence of the programs listed in MRUList key with the correct order, and it must be started with the key that has EXCEL.EXE as its value (mine was started with excelcnv.exe --> perhaps it's because I had installed the office compatibility tools when I was using Office).

3. Fix the xlsx file association.
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx, make sure that the (Default) key is correct, it should be Excel.Sheet.12 for Office 2007 (or Excel.Sheet.14 for Office 2010 - CMIIW). Then go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command (or Excel.Sheet.14 if it's newer version of Office) and make sure that its (Default) key's value refers to the correct path of EXCEL.EXE (it should be "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" /e or similar, depends on your installation folder).
Mine was xlsx_auto_file under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx and when I went to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\xlsx_auto_file\shell\open\command i found that its (Default) key's value was "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\EXCEL.EXE" "%1" (wrong path since OFFICE11 is no longer exists).

4. Re-enable the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) from Excel Options > Advanced under General section (check the tick box).
Mine had error message when this feature is un-checked (I un-checked this based on other suggestion to solve this problem, but it didn't work).

5. Restart the computer to fully activate the registry changes.

Restoring DDE

For the vast majority, DDE is not needed and the new default won’t make any difference to the way you use Office.

If you need DDE for some purpose, go into the Registry to enable it fully or, better, use the new ‘middle path’ which stops new programs starting.

\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Word\Security

Replace <version> with the internal version for Office:
Office 2016=16.0  Office 2013=15.0  Office 2010=14.0 Office 2007=12.0

Create or use the key  AllowDDE   a DWORD value:

0: Disables DDE  The new default setting after you install the Dec. 2017 update.  Leave DDE disabled unless you have a specific reason for letting it work.
1: Allows DDE requests but only to an already running program.  DDE can’t launch another executable program.
2: Fully allow DDE requests, NOT recommended unless you’re really sure.
What took Microsoft so long?

This option should have been available for a long time.  Microsoft appears to be reluctant to drop DDE because it would be an admission of the security problems inherent in the technology.