Office documents open as read-only from SharePoint/Internet explorer crashes when opening Office documents from SharePoint

You may encounter this issue if you have multiple version of Microsoft Office installed on your computer. To find this out, you may check Programs under Microsoft Office or open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office and check for Office11 and Office12 folders. If you find both of them, then you have both versions installed.

To fix this, please perform the following:

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12.
2. Locate the OWSSUPP.DLL file and rename it to OWSSUPP.DLL.OLD. If you get an error when renaming the file, then close all Office applications like Outlook, Office Communicator, MS Word or Excel along with Internet explorer sessions and try again. If you still face issues, please contact your local admin and perform these steps again.

   

3. Now navigate to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11 folder.
4. Locate the OWSSUPP.DLL file and copy it.

   

5. Now navigate back to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 folder.
6. Paste the OWSSUPP.DLL file from the Office11 folder to here, the Office12 folder.
7. Open a command prompt window with Start/Run/cmd.
8. Chance directory to the Office12 folder with CD “Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12″.
9. Now using REGSVR32 OWSSUPP.DLL re-register the DLL file.

   

10. Now here’s where the trick come in. You will receive an error message like this:

    

11. Pay the error no heed. The registration worked. Go back and attempt to edit your Office document on SharePoint. It should work without any problems.
12. If you still encounter the same issue, as a last resort we may repair Office 2003 or upgrade to Office 2007.

If you would not like to perform the above then you may also try the hotfix released by Microsoft which fixes the issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938888.  In any of the above case, you must work with your local desktop team for assistance as this requires administrative privileges.

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