You cannot open Office files in Internet Explorer

When you try to open a Microsoft Office XP or a Microsoft Office 2003 file in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, the document does not open, and you receive one of the following error messages:

Error message 1 Error message 2Error message 3

This problem occurs if the file or the path name is longer than 255 characters. If the file or the path name is longer than 255 characters, the file cannot be located on a URL Web address, a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path, or a mapped drive.

Additionally, Microsoft Office programs have a limitation for the total length of the path and the file name. The combined length cannot be more than 218 characters.

If the temporary file name in the Internet Temporary folder is longer than 218 characters, you will receive one of the error messages that is referenced in the "Symptoms" section.

You can resolve this problem by updating your version of Internet Explorer to one of the following versions:

• Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2 (5.50.4807.2300)
• Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1

For additional information about how to update Internet Explorer, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: After you update Internet Explorer, you must make a modification to the registry to turn on the fix for this problem. You must add a new registry entry named TruncateFileName, that has the following properties:

Subkey:
Entry: TruncateFileName
Type: DWORD
Value: 1

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Follow these steps, and then quit Registry Editor:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Internet Settings\
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD value.
4. Type TruncateFileName, and then press ENTER.
5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
6. Type 1, and then click OK.

If you still cannot open a specific Office file, the temporary cache file may be damaged or corrupted. To resolve this problem, you must delete the temporary Internet files that Internet Explorer caches. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Internet Options on the Tools menu.
2. Click Delete Files on the General tab.
3. Click OK, and then click OK.

For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: