File Previewers not working in Explorer

Anonymous
2009-11-12T16:07:39+00:00

I can't seem to "preview" document files in Explorer, most types anyway.

Image viewers still seem to work.

If I open the Preview pane, then select any .TXT, .DOC, or .XLS files, the Preview pane says:

"This file can't be previewed because of an error in the Windows TXT previewer."

"This file can't be previewed because of an error in the Microsoft Office Word previewer."

"This file can't be previewed because of an error in the Microsoft Office Excel previewer."

Any ideas as to what might be causing this?

(Running Windows 7 Professional)

J_Mack

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2009-11-22T23:20:32+00:00

I found a solution that seems to have worked for me.  In Microsoft Word I went to:

Office Button -> Word Options -> Resources, and clicked on "Run Microsoft Office Diagnostics."  It took a while.  It found one installation issue as the very last test of 40 tests.  I closed Word and re-opened, and the previews are now working again.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-06-11T01:21:53+00:00

    Yes, it does, but they hid it outside of Word in  Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools >  Microsoft Office Diagnostics

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-06-11T00:26:43+00:00

    Office diagnostics doesn't exist for Office 2010.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-06-10T06:42:03+00:00

    Running the "Microsoft Office Diagnostics" also fixed the problem for me. In Office 2010 I found the program under Start > All Programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools >  Microsoft Office Diagnostics

    None of this worked for my user.  Running Office 2007 on Win7 Pro 32-bit. 

     

    What did work was

     

    1. delete the normal.dotm under the users profile appdata\roaming\microsoft\templates\
    2. once word was opened again, the template was recreated.
    3. I then went to the security tab and added the "everyone" group with full permissions to the file.
    4. Preview worked perfectly on two different machines using this method.

    AT LAST - A SOLUTION THAT WORKS!

    Many thanks irishtrey for that.

    Why can't Microsoft come up with something like that?

    Update:

    I spoke too soon - It only works the first time Word runs. If I exit Word and back in again, the problem returns!

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-05-04T15:07:58+00:00

    I have tried the "solutions" suggested by Microsft and other users.  Nothing seems to work for us.  I even resintalled Windows 7 and Microsoft Word 2010.  I removed all add-ins, etc.  Nothing works.  Microsft should not get away with selling expensive software that cannot do their job.  It's time that Microsoft fix this annoying issue or reimburse the consumers.  Microsoft, what do you say?

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