XL2000: You receive the error message "file not found" when you open a workbook that contains automatic links

When you open a workbook that contains links to another file, you receive the following message: If you click Yes, the File Not Found dialog box appears. If you click No, the reference in the link is changed to the Xlstart folder under Microsoft Excel.

This problem occurs if you do one or both of the following:

• You create links to another workbook and save the files in the Alternate startup file location folder. You then delete the Alternate startup file location setting in the Options dialog box.
• You save and close the workbook that contains the links, and then you delete the other workbook that it is linked to.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps:

1. If the workbooks are open, close them.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options. On the General tab, change the folder location in the Alternate startup file location box to the folder you used when you saved the files.
   
   Note You must open a workbook to make the Options command on the Tools menu available. Also, the folder location you specify in the Alternate startup file location box should use the same hard disk and folder where the files are located.
3. Open the linked workbooks. Clear the Alternate startup file location box in the Options dialog box.
4. Save and close all the workbooks.
   
   When you reopen the files, the links refer to the correct workbook.

If the problem was caused by deleting the source workbook, follow these steps:

1. Open the problem workbook, and then make a note of the path and the file name for the missing workbook.
2. Create a blank workbook that has only one worksheet.
3. Save the new workbook in the same location as the deleted workbook.
   
   Name the new workbook that has the same name as the missing workbook.
4. Close the new workbook
5. In the problem workbook, click Edit.
6. Click Links.
7. Click the link that you want to delete.
8. Click Open source.
   
   This will open the new workbook.
9. Click Edit.
10. Click Move or click Copy Sheet.
11. Under the To Book section, select the problem workbook.
12. Under the Before sheet section, click Move to end.
13. Click OK.
    
    This will move the single worksheet in the new workbook into the problem workbook.
14. Click Edit.
15. Click Links.
    
    The link to the missing workbook will not be listed.
16. Delete the worksheet that was inserted in step 13.

Note If the problem that is described in this article continues to reoccur, Administrators can prevent the reoccurrence of this problem by setting a Group Policy setting that prevents users from saving to an alternate startup file location.

To set a Group Policy setting, use the Group Policy Editor that is included with the Office Resource Kit core tool set. To do so, visit the following Microsoft Web site.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.