Can't open any Office 2013 program and "There was a problem sending the command to the program"

Hi,
I purchased Office 2013 sometime at the start of last year, Order#: CNL61123XXXX, program code A65117XXXX (If you want to know the exact number that PM me, I just want to show it's a ligit purchase).
It has been working flawlessly for nearly a year until a couple of days ago I couldn't open any office documents. Whenever I click on a document (Whether its Excel, Word, Powerpoint, etc), I receive the message "There was a problem sending the command to the program".
When I try to open Word, Excel, etc. I click on it and nothing happens. No screens open up, no faults, just nothing.


I need Excel for work purposes all the time and this is very annoying. All my files open up on another computer running Office 2003 and 2010, no problems, nothing corrupt.
When I reboot in safe mode it behaves exactly the same, it doesn't make a difference.
I decided to uninstall Office 2013 and re-install Office 2010 or 2007 as I have purchased previous versions as well, but, I can't uninstall Office 2013 and the system refuse to install Office 2010 on my PC.
I am in a real trouble here. I have searched the internet and I have checked all the available options, such as: Uncheck "Run as administrator" under Properties.
Most fixes are based on the fact that people will be able to open the Excel program but can't open files. I can't even open the program, not even when I run it as Excel /Safe.
I have installed all latest updates Windows 7 and Office related. This didn't help either.
Could you please give me some indication what needs to be done to correct this?
I am running office on a HP PavilionDV6 laptop and this has all the latest updates installed as well. No problems with no other programs and couldn't find any malware, viruses using MawareBytes, Avira, McAfee, etc.
The other thing is when I purchased Office 2007 and Office 2010 I could download a .exe file and store this on my PC. When I purchased Office 2013 it installed on my PC but didn't leave any .exe files. From memory the complete download was just over 1 GB. That's the reason why I want to roll back to 2010 as I can't find any .exe file.
Thanks,

Luc

PS: I am in Antarctica and we've got limited bandwidth, so, please no links to hefty downloads.

Have you tried repairing the Office installation (via Programs & Features > Microsoft Office > Change in the Windows Control Panel)?

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Hi macropod,

Yes I have retried that as well. It states "This shouldn't take long" but that wasn't the case. The first time I let it go over night, but 14 hours later it was still circling. It doesn't do nothing. I have tried it again but to no avail.
I have also tried to send a message to Microsoft but it seems easier to have a chat with Obama then contacting them; After about four hours writing emails, changing passwords, going through all the technical stuff, I gave up. The system didn't allow me to send an email. All that work for nothing.
Thanks for your suggestion.
Luc

In that case, I'd suggest using System Restore to revert your system to the last date on which it worked before the problems started happening.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Hi macropod.

That's the funny thing, after the first time the message came up, I thought I'm better off to reboot the system only to find out that the boot sector of my HDD was damaged!
Luckily I could repair this but when I eventually was succesful booting the laptop I found it was running as per normal but there were no restore points in the system restore function!
My laptop is running as per normal, I've got all functionality, there is no load on the processor, it's not running hot, it's stable, etc. The only thing is that MS Office doesn't open any of it's programs: Excel, Word, Access, PowerPoint, OneNote, etc. Nothing opens.
It really leaves me flabbergasted. I've done all sorts of tests: HD tests, RAM tests, etc. All normal.
I scanned the whole system, 760000 files, and not one single bit of malware, viruses, etc.
It seems to be a common problem. I am using TotalCommander and when I try to open the file in TC then it throws up a message: "Error executing program! (29)". This is a problem addressed in the TC-forums but is not related to TC, hence why I'm posting it here.
All answers related to this problem tells us to open Excel, or Word, or whatever, and make some changes in the options of the program. My problem is that can't even open these programs.
Before I posted this message I spent hours and hours reading and searching for solutions but all to no avail. It seems a tough nut to crack.
Thanks for your help anyway.
Luc

Since it seems you still have access to your Office 2010 installation files, you could completely removed Office 2013, as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2739501, then reinstall Office 2010; otherwise, you'll have a l o o o ng wait for an Office 2013 download.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Hi Macropad,
That was one of the other problems. I tried to repair and uninstall Office 2013: None of these options worked! Tried it in safe mode, no success either.
The only method I had left was hard killing it by deleting files in the ProgramFiles! I know, not the recommended method to do it but I had no other choice. Eventually I was then able to re-install Office 2010. Of course it didn't come with the updates. I left my computer on overnight to download 370 MB of SP1 and critical updates. Now this morning I need to install another 244MB worth of updates.
Anyway, I spent 4 days trying to sort this out. A lesson well learned! Microsoft is uncontactable. I have tried everything but you can't contact them. Very convenient when you are a regular user as I am. I don't think I will ever buy Microsoft products again. The lack of support and advice to their customers is shocking. I've tried several forums as well. The only person who responded was Macropod (Thanks mate). It seems there is much more support available for Open Office or Libre Office.
End conclusion: Lost four days of my time, lost my money buying rubbish software and build up lots of frustration.
I need a drink now...

Well, if you were going to install 600Mb+ of updates, you may as well have downloaded Office 2013 from scratch, then reinstalled that after wiping the old installation - the right way, per the instructions in my post #6. There's no telling what corruption is still lurking in your system after the way you've done it. Simply deleting program files goes nowhere near removing the program's templates, registry entries, etc., some of which Office 2010 is now likely to pick up and adopt as its own.

Microsoft is readily contactable, by email and by phone. It also has extensive on-line support pages, including the one I referred you to. It's hardly fair to complain about a lack of support and advice when you haven't provided any indication on how the problem arose in the first place, just as you've done here... Oh, and this board has no connection with Microsoft, in case you were wondering.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Macropod,
I realized this forum is not affiliated with Microsoft, I knew that from the beginning.
If you got a contact email for Microsoft then I would be very happy to receive that from you! If it works even better!
I have been through the official website of Microsoft, gone through the whole questionaire, wrote a lengthy message, only to find out:"Your message could not be delivered". No explanation, no reason, nothing.
The reason why I didn't or couldn't download Office 2013 is because my account at Microsoft didn't work any longer (Still don't know why). I spent about 3 hours trying to re-activate it. Eventually it worked again but it was impossible to register my key into the system. The screen re-opens itself and shows blank fields. I have tried from three different computers: Same thing. I have tried it in Chrome, Firefox and IE: Same thing.
So, in other words, I have my account active again but can't register any software I got.
You would expect for a software company they could make their registration process a bit more user friendly.
I went through all the emails I received to download Office 2013, however, none of these links work anymore.
Why is it so hard to retrieve or re-download purchased software?
I followed the instructions as per your advice in your post #6 but as stated before it didn't work. I tried multiple times but to no avail.
Yes, you are right, I still might have a lurking problem and the thought scares me but after four days of frustration there is nothing more I can do.
Thanks for all your advice and care.
Luc

You could start at: http://support.microsoft.com/contact...7032&TID=&STID=
There is nothing in any of the prior discussion to indicate you'd tried that. Indeed, you haven't said anything specific about what you've done until after suggestions have been made (i.e. only after 'Repair' was suggested, only after 'System Restore' was suggested and now only after removal via 'Fixit' was suggested)! Plus, you've now gone about the software removal in what's probably the worst way possible and without seeking advice beforehand. And you still haven't said anything about what caused the issue in the first place. You are not making it easy for anyone to help you.

You're now at the point that the only sure way of recovering the situation is to wipe your system and reinstall everything from scratch. I trust you have comprehensive backups ...

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

hi LRAT and macropod,
i got the same problems with LRAT, i hv 7 licenses and 35 active user and almost 20 user of my office365 error with the message "There was a problem sending the command to the program"

im using small business premium retail 32bit

i've tried using Microsoft Fix it 50392 but it's not working and still can't open the office at all

i'v tried to remove the office365 using O15CTRRemove.diagcab and reinstal the office365 online but the problems still exist in a few days

other people advice to change the options and the registry
but still not working at all
1. Click the File tab, and then click Options.
2. Click Advanced, scroll down to the General section and clear the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box in the General area.
3. Click OK.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office 15\\Root\\Office15\\EXCEL.EXE /e \"%1\""

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\comman d]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office 15\\Root\\Office15\\EXCEL.EXE /e \"%1\""

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open\ddee xec] @="[REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen(\"%1\")]" [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open\ddee xec\Application] @="WordView" [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Open\ddee xec\Topic] @="System" [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.DocumentMacroEnabled.12\she ll\Open\ddeexec] @="[REM _DDE_Direct][FileOpen(\"%1\")]" [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.DocumentMacroEnabled.12\she ll\Open\ddeexec\Application] @="WordView" [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.DocumentMacroEnabled.12\she ll\Open\ddeexec\Topic] @="System"

and i've tried to setting the excel trust center options
trust center > trust center settings > external content> enable both
then enable the macro options and trust the VBA
then active X setting enable
and the privacy to untick the "check microsoft office documents that are from or link to suspicious website"

and the entire ways i have been tried still got the message "There was a problem sending the command to the program" and not working at all

and i hv tried make a service request to microsoft but the help was same like my step above and not very helpfull

do you have any suggestion or help PLEASE HELP ME to solve this problems... thanks in advance...