Hyperlink to MHT File in Office Documents Fails to Load in Internet Explorer

Consider this scenario:

You are using an Office application (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint) and you insert a hyperlink to a MHT file on a file share. When you click the link to follow it, Internet Explorer starts, but the MHT file is not loaded. Instead you see an error:

The address is not valid.

Most likely causes:

• There might be a typing error in the address.
• If you clicked on a link, it may be out of date.

There are spaces in the path or file name in the URL.

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:

322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756) How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

To work around this issue, follow these steps:

To have us fix this problem for you, go to the "Fix it for me" section. If you prefer to fix this problem yourself, go to the "Let me fix it myself" section.

Fix it for me

To fix this problem automatically, click the Fix it button or link. Then click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in the Fix it wizard.




Notes

• Please exit Internet Explorer and any other Office Application that is affected by the issue before you run the Fix it solution.
• This wizard may be in English only. However, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.
• If you are not on the computer that has the problem, save the Fix it solution to a flash drive or a CD and then run it on the computer that has the problem.

Then, go to the "Did this fix the problem?" section.

Let me fix it myself

1. Quit any open Office Application that is affected by the issue.
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click to select the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\
4. After you select the key that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
5. Type FEATURE_CREATE_URL_MONIKER_DISABLE_LEGACY_COMPAT, and then press ENTER.
6. Select New on the Edit menu again, and select DWord (32-bit) Value
7. Type iexplore.exe and press Enter
8. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

Did this fix the problem?

• Check whether the problem is fixed. If the problem is fixed, you are finished with this section. If the problem is not fixed, you can contact support (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus) .
• We would appreciate your feedback. To provide feedback or to report any issues with this solution, please leave a comment on the "Fix it for me (http://blogs.technet.com/fixit4me/) " blog or send us an email (mailto:fixit4me@microsoft.com?Subject=KB) .

Web files (.HTM, .HTML, .ASP, .MHT, .MHTML, etc.) are most frequently stored on web servers, which are designed to use URL encoding to deal with spaces. If you access your .MHT files from a web server, they will load properly with or without spaces in the path.