Explorer spliting directory names on spaces

Explorer has started failing to open Office documents when there is a space in the directory name.

Example: I double click a Word document that has a space in the directory name. Word opens and tells me "Word cannot open the document". OK that message. Then the next message says "The path name is not valid" and mentions the directory name up to the first space. OK to that. Then the next message says "The path name is not valid" and mentions the directory name from the first space to the next space. And do on till there are no more space separated parts of the directory name.

Opening docuements from within an Office product works fine.

The only thing that I can think (however unlikely) that caused this to start happening was the installation of a HP CD burner on the LPT port.

Any help much appreciated.

Greg

This is a Microsoft known problem - it occurs when you try and open a document by double clicking the document name in explorer AND the full path name has spaces in it (as you have found).

The fix is on the MS Web site (in the Knowledge Base) with document reference Q139849.

If you start the App first and then open the doc inside the app the problem does not appear.

Good luck!

[This message has been edited by GregL (edited 11-04-99).]

You don't say whether you're running NT4 and which SP you're using. There are a few articles in the MS KB - see the following examples:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q179/1/47.ASP

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q165/7/63.ASP

The general impression is that you should upgrade to the latest SP - I suggest SP5, not SP6 until we know more about it!

If this doesn't help, reply with more information on your setup.

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Howard Marsh
HWM Consulting Pty Ltd
Queensland, Australia