I have a new copy of MS Office 2010 Professional. I have no problem with Word documents. When I try to open an Excel file (or Powerpoint for that matter), the document looks like it's associated with Excel, but when I click on it I get an error message: "...is not a valid Win32 application". If I open Excel and then ask to open that file, the file opens just fine. I've used the Open With command and tried to navigate to the Excel executable, but the only thing that comes up in a search is "Microsoft Office 2010 Component" with the Excel logo. And that won't open the file. The only thing that seems to be visible on my file system anywhere is that "Component" or the shortcut available under "Start / Programs". There must be something somewhere else I can point to.

Thanks in advance.

It sounds like your file associations somehow got messed up. The default install path for Excel 2010 should be: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE

But to fix the problem permanently, you will need to change the default program (.exe) associated with the Excel file extension. You can see a good tutorial on how to do that here: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixthe...-windows-7.htm

Hope this helps.

Joel

That worked! For some reason, when searching for the Excel executable from the control panel setting, I found it (though still in some unknown place -- maybe it's a hidden file?). Now PowerPoint is still elusive, but at least I have some more amunition to throw at it.

Thanks!

Hi, I have the same problem, but when I try to setup the excel as the default program, it won't shows up the MS Excel even I choose it, it will always shows "Microsoft 2010 office component" with excel icon.

My OS is Win7 64 bit, but for some reaon, I have to use office 2010 32bit edition. Is this the one causing the problem?