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The File Open dialog box may not work in the 2007 Office system or in Office 2010 on a Windows 7-based computer

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Microsoft Knowledge Base Article

This article contents is Microsoft Copyrighted material.
©2005-©2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Trademarks

Article ID: 2027004 - Last Review: July 16, 2010 - Revision: 2.0

The File Open dialog box may not work in the 2007 Office system or in Office 2010 on a Windows 7-based computer

Symptoms

When you try to access the File Open dialog box in the 2007 Microsoft Office system or in Microsoft Office 2010, the operation may not work. This issue occurs on a Windows 7-based computer. When you encounter this issue in Office Word or in Office Excel, you do not receive an error message. However, in Office PowerPoint, you receive the following error message:

An error occurred while opening the file dialog. Please save your presentations, exit, and then restart PowerPoint.

Cause

The issue occurs if the value of the __COMPAT_LAYER environment variable is set to DisableThemes.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, right-click Computer, click Properties, and then click Advanced system settings.
  2. On the Advanced tab, click Environment Variables.
  3. Locate and select the __COMPAT_LAYER variable, and then click Edit.
  4. Set the value of the __COMPAT_LAYER variable to EnableThemes. Or, delete the __COMPAT_LAYER variable.

APPLIES TO
  • 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 1
  • 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2
  • Microsoft Office Professional 2010
  • Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
  • Microsoft Excel 2010
  • Microsoft Excel Home and Student 2010
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
  • Microsoft PowerPoint Home and Student 2010
  • Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2010
  • Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010
  • Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010
  • Microsoft Word 2010
  • Microsoft Office Word 2007
  • Microsoft Office Word 2007 (Home and Student version)
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2007
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2007 (Home and Student version)
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 (Home and Student version)
Keywords: 
KB2027004
       

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