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You receive an error message when you try to open a file type that was blocked by your registry policy settings in Excel 2010, Excel 2007 or Excel 2003


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Symptoms

When you try to open a file that was saved in a Microsoft Excel format, the file does not open. Additionally, you receive the following error message:
You are attempting to open a file type that is blocked by your registry policy setting.

You are attempting to open a file type <<File Type>> that has been blocked by your File Block settings in the Trust Center.
If you receive a similar error message when you try to save a file, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:
945797 You receive an error message when you try to save a file type that was blocked by your registry policy settings in Excel 2007 or in Excel 2003

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Cause

This issue may occur if an administrator has restricted the types of files that you can open in Microsoft Office Excel 2010, Microsoft Office Excel 2007 or Microsoft Office Excel 2003. To do this, an administrator can set a registry key to restrict this functionality.

By default, the following file types are blocked in Excel 2010:
  • Excel 4 Workbooks
  • Excel 4 Worksheets
  • Excel 3 Worksheets
  • Excel 2 Worksheets
  • Excel 4 Macrosheets and Add-in Files
  • Excel 3 Macrosheets and Add-in Files
  • Excel 2 Macrosheets and Add-in Files
For Excel 2010, the registry key can be set in the 2010 Office System Administrative Templates. For more information, see "Excel 2010" subsection of the "More Information" section.

For Excel 2007, the registry key can be set in the 2007 Office System Administrative Templates. For more information, see "Excel 2007" subsection of the "More Information" section.

For Excel 2003, update 933666 enables an administrator to block the ability to save or to open files in Excel 2003. For more information, see the "Excel 2003" subsection of the "More Information" section.

By default, the following files are blocked in Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3:
  • Microsoft Excel 4.0 Charts (.xlc)
  • DBF 2 (dBASE II) (.dbf)
For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
938810 Information about certain file formats that are blocked after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3

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Resolution

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
To open files that are blocked by the registry, you can disable the restriction on opening presentations that were blocked by the registry settings of Excel. To do this, click to expand the section according to which version of Excel you are using.

Excel 2010

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Excel 2007

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Excel 2003

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Note You can also contact the system administrator to change the Group Policy setting.

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More information

How to restrict files in Microsoft Excel

Excel 2010


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Excel 2007

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Excel 2003

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Properties

Article ID: 922848 - Last Review: May 31, 2012 - Revision: 13.0
APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2007
  • Microsoft Excel 2010
Keywords:�
kbsavefile kbopenfile kberrmsg kbexpertisebeginner kbtshoot kbprb kbcip KB922848

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Keywords: KB922848, kbcip, kbprb, kbtshoot, kbexpertisebeginner, kberrmsg, kbopenfile, kbsavefile

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Article Info
Article ID : 922848
Revision : 13
Created on : 5/31/2012
Published on : 5/31/2012
Exists online : False
Views : 703