Excel 2003 Slow Opening From Network Share
Recently a user was having issues opening excel files , were by a 600kb file could take around 20 seconds to open. When you copied this file locally to the computer it opened it straight away , and other computers accessing the file had no problem. What I did notice was when you opened the file , the network usage would spike to 7mb/s for the entire time while only retrieving a 600kb file. Opening .pdf / .doc files around double or triple the size would open instantly A bit of research online only proved the fault/fix with a Windows 7 setup accessing office 2003 documents http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982860 I tried the “Under the registry entry, disable these two registry keys: Right-click Enablesecuritysignature, and then click Modify. Type 0 in the Value data box and then click OK. Right-click Requiresecuritysignature, and then click Modify. Type 0 in the Value data box and then click OK.” However no success , my setup however was Windows XP and Office 2003. After much searching the fix was actually pretty recent from microsft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623 “reduces performance due to the network traffic when reading in the parts of the workbook” So upgrade to 2007/2010 or disable OFV! You can perform the below fix manually , or I have create a .re file which does it http://www.pariswells.com/upload/fix.zip
You can use the EnableOnLoad registry entry to configure how you want Excel to handle opening workbooks for the OFV. By default, the EnableOnLoad entry is not present in the Windows registry. To add the EnableOnLoadentry to the Windows registry, follow these steps:
- Exit Excel.
- Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
- Locate and then click to select the following registry key: **EDIT** Thanks to Frank in the comments , the proper key is ” HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0″ Old key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\”
- After you select the key that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
- Type Excel, and then press ENTER.
- Select Excel, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
- Type Security, and then press ENTER.
- Select Security, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
- Type FileValidation, and then press ENTER.
- Select FileValidation, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click DWORD Value.
- Type EnableOnLoad, and then press ENTER. Note: The default value is 0 which disables the validation.
- On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
Thanks for the valuable info, it was the right thing to do in my case!
Thanks a lot!
Thanks a lot, you saved us from hours of seeking. Just how can they shamelessly providing the “Method” 1 and “Method” 2 as “solutions”…
Spot on. Was taking 4 to 5 minutes to open Excel documents with a few MB from a network drive. Server showed network utilisation of 5% for the entire duration. Hope this elevates in search results soon, as it took a few hours to find.
I spent at least an hour trying to figure out what was going on all of the sudden. Users on a WAN via VPN suddenly took 10 times longer than normal to load files. This solved it.
The real question is – why 10 times longer? What is OFV doing? Loading the file 10 times, just to be sure? Bah…Stupid.
Thanks for the tip! You made my day!
Thanks for the post – spent hours on this trying all sorts of fixes..this one actually worked !! thanks again
Good question , OFV is supposed to be a security checker for File Types , not sure why it’s only effecting Excel files over a network !
Thanks for the tip. microsoft give me a error path in registry editor. The right path is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\11.0
This post helped me get this problem resolved. Some users were unable to open Excel docs from the server. It was taking over 5 minutes to open some Excel files that were about 9 Meg.
Thanks!!
Yep, you rock, thanks very much. Saved a lot of head scratching.
Thank you so much!! i was trying to solve this problem for almost a week.
Thanks so much, fixed.
Spent 4 hours on this (for a user of my company who refused to upgrade to 2007). Solved in 5mn thanks to you.
YOU ROCK !
Thank you, fixed hungarian Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003. I had to create the Office/11.0 Keys too in the registry.
What everyone else said. It was driving me mad.
J
Flank has the correct registry key for XP. This worked great. Thanks.
Dan
Thanks for the fix! I had been trying to solve this problem for days!
Thank you very much to all who contributed, I spent hours on this and this fix really helped me out. I could not understand why some devices worked and some did not. Thanks again.
thanks! this worked great and making someone happy! i also was looking for a solution for days!
Thanks a lot!
I was searching for the solution for almost 2 days.
It is really frustrating when Microsoft suppose to fix something and end up breaking something else…
Superb!
We where confronted yesterday with this problem and thanks to your solution it is fixed!
Thanks!
Just the solution that I needed. Thank you. You saved me time and frustrations.
Thanks!
After hours of tracing/monitoring google leads me to this page.
Thanks So Much!
Having worked on this problem for hours and trying multiple fixes, it was such a sigh of relief as I read your post and it was EXACTLY what was happening to me.
Many Thanks. Saved time.
I’m frustrated about Microsoft.
Bedankt voor de uitleg.
En de groeten aan Microsoft.
Voorlopig werk ik nog prima met Excel 2003 en alle handige sneltoetsen.
this will not work for all users!!! So i i run this under admin will do the job but when i logon as different user with no admin rights still not work!
To enable for all computers on a machine
1) Remove the OFV windows update from the machine
2) Create a group policy on the login script to edit the current user
3) Microsofts suggestion , upgrade to 2007/2010!
Thanks alot for this.
My user was getting at me!
You are a genius! Thank you! Worked like a charm!
Using Windows XP and Excel 2003
Great fix thanks worked perfectly.
It Worked
THX
Nice, very nice !
It works !
Thanks paris. this happened on what one my coworkers pc’s and your regfix solved it
This helped me as well. Saved me hours of time. Thank you.
Been working on this for almost two weeks. My only question is why was this solution buried three O’s deep in my Google search behind so many non-solutions?
Annoyed, but very relieved. Thank you.
Wow! Thanks for the fix!
Worked great for me.
Kind Regards,
Doug
Absolutley perfect! Completely fixed it!
Thank you so much ! It worked for me as well.
Thank you!
This corrected my issue, thanks a bunch.
Thank you thank you thank you… another Microsoft update, another effort by the people to find a workaround. Is this the twisted partnership we have all entered into? Before and After: Job security updates.
Greetings from Switzerland
You have ended my sleepless nights. I was very desperate. Thank you very much for the workaround. I d’ont anderstand Microsoft.
THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks for this post! Invaluable information!
Tack så mycket för detta! Jag hade samma problem: Att öppna Excel-filer över nätverket (har en nätverksdisk) tog jättelång tid. Jag körde din fil och nu funkar allt som smort igen! Stort tack!
Thannk you so much! Added a comment in Swedish so that my compatriates can find this solution if they search in Swedish. As I spent quite a bit of time on this it would have been nice to find out whatever happended in the first place. All was okay, and then, suddenly, this problem starts. Could it be a virus/trojan issue? Kind regards, Mats
Thanks a lot! Worked on swedish Win7 and Office 2003 as well. Is all this caused by a misbehaving MS update?
Thanks a lot. Worked for me (WinXP, Excel 2003). But it is strange, that the problem occurs just a few weeks ago.
Thanks for the fix, I’m sure MS would rather you shell out money and upgrade to 2007 or 2010.
Works like a charm. Thanks for posting this!
Many thanks from The Netherlands!!
Nice job….your fixed worked great!
Thanks for the great little fix.
Do you know what the equivalent keys in a Win 7 64Bit Registry?
Many thanks
Fady
Thousand of thanks from France ! (WinXP and Excel 2003)
Thank you so much. Some of the other suggestions sped up the file opening process, but not much. This fix did the trick and now my large file opens just as quickly over the LAN as it does locally.
Thank you so much for this, I’d spent hours upon hours trying to fix this issue!!!
Thanks so much, worked great- everything is opening quickly again!
you sir, are the man. if you’re ever in Richmond, VA, I owe you a beer!
Perfecto
One happy chap I am, I cannot beleive that such a simple change can
affect their software so easily !, Used in on a cliennt site and worked a treat.
I have found that this issue also resolve it for later versions that’s been upgraded
to 2007 / 2010 that’s got issues. They must have inherited some setting from 2003 in the upgrade process. So prob best to perform a clean install when you want to go up a version.
Windows Xp running Office 2003…
Worked perfectly… ran the fix.zip file… way easy…
Thats MS for making life a ton easier for users on this update! Not!
Thanks so much. This article is the best, while I could not see any helpful from Microsoft…
Thanks, worked perfectly!
The IT guy always hates it when I figure out the fix before he does, with your help of course!
Worked like a charm, thanks for the advice!
running windows XPSP3 Office professional 2003
Thanks! Spent hours trying to find a solution. Was able to open files on network drive if less than 400K though very slow. Impossible if 1 MB or more. Now all files opens in seconds!
Typical Microsoft – creating more problems for more people with “updates” on stuff that used to work OK.
If you ever come to Denmark, a dinner is on me. Thank you!
Thank you so much. Worked Perfectly!
Thank you for your advice.
running Windows 7 64 bits Office professional 2003
Perfect! Thanks so much for your help!!
Thank You So Much!
You saved my day during a PC upgrade
Thanks for the Info and time to publish it!!!
It help me a lot!!!
Thank you so much. And f. Ms for this upgrading scheme.
Fantastic, thanks
THANKS!!
Windows 7 w/ Excel 2003 and NAS
Thank you!
If you want to add it to a batch file, use this code.
reg add “hkcu\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation” /v EnableOnLoad /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
Tested on Windows XP SP3 (32-bit), Office 2003.
Thank you very much!
Jamie
dude,
this worked a treat?! nice one player.
sorted!
ricky
Thanks, worked perfectly! your a star !!!
Thanks so much. This has been my problem for a long time
Very thanks !!!!worked like a charm!
Thank you so much.
This worked perfectly.
Thanks for this solution! It was really frustrating to see Excel was fast opening a file on the C-drive and slow with the same file on a network share. This solution did the trick.
Thank you! We had this problem for weeks!This did the job!
Thanks for the helpful information! To pay it forward, here is a Group Policy Administrative Template (.adm file) that can be used to deploy this registry fix in a GPO. See this link for more info on how to use it:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/askds/archive/2007/08/14/deploying-custom-registry-changes-through-group-policy.aspx
————
CLASS USER
CATEGORY Microsoft_Excel_(CustomADM)
POLICY OfficeFileValidation
EXPLAIN !!OFVHelp
KEYNAME Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\11.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation
VALUENAME “EnableOnLoad”
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
END POLICY
END CATEGORY
[strings]
EnableOnLoad=”Enable Office File Validation”
; explains
OFVHelp=”Enable or Disable Office File Validation for Excel 2003. In Excel 2003, enabling this setting causes a long delay when opening large files over a network share, but it is slightly more secure.”
—–
Awesome! Helped me with my job! THanks alot!!
Thank you soo much for the solution, have had this problem for at couple of weeks. Re-installation of the whole office package only worked for a couple of days.
Thnx!
Great fix. Thanks a lot.
Is it also possible to remove the update ?
If so, what is de KB number
Thank you, I been trying to solve this one for days. Live Long and Prosper!
Thanks, great solution. Excel files under 100KB located on a network were taking about 3-5 seconds to open and larger files were taking much longer. After following the instructions to edit the registry, the files opened instantly as they had done in the past.
Running Office 2003 on Windows XP.
Thanks again!
Thank you so very much for the info and fix. You have saved me many continued hours of needlessly searching for answers I was beginning to think did not exist!
THANK YOU!!! MY HERO!!!
Apparently MS found out about your fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623
They’ve created a ‘Fix It For Me’ script that effectively does the same thing.
Thank you for posting this very helpful information.
Thank you very much!
Thanks a lot. That really saved my day!
Thanks! Very valuable!
Absurd
Great article, this was exactly the issue I was suffering on a few sites.
Why of why do Microsoft do this to us poor guys supporting their products. I have removed OFV and stopped it deploying via WSUS … critical update my ar5e.
Keep up the good work. GT
Wow excellent it works so well.
Thanks a lot! I’m applying your fix to all workstations now.
Thanks for the great fix. It saved us.
Worked for me! Great fix!!!
Thank you so so much.Your fix fixed the issue & I almost died of a heartattack when the fix worked…hahahahaa
Cheers from Dubai
Thank you also.
You totally ROCK! I had this exact problem after installing AVAST so I assumed that was the root of the problem. Uninstalling it did not help and after a bunch of online searching, I came across this page. All better now. Thanks for the hotfix.
[...] Credit from this post comes from http://pariswells.com/blog/fixes/excel-2003-slow-opening-from-network-share [...]
Thanks! This fixed a long standing problem with only one machine on my network
and it is a user who is constantly loading Excel files. Load times went from >2 min
to <1 second! Absolutely amazing help.
Absolutely spot on solution.
I spent 4/5 days with this problem before googling it. I was sceptical about whether anything useful would appear but sure enough your blog was top of the search results.
Thank you soooooooo much
Thank you. WOW what an easy fix. 2007 in not free….and either is our time.
Thanks so much for this,
This problem has been bugging me for months!!!
This worked well on a 2003 Citrix box that was opening files like a dog. Microsoft suggests creating a value in the same key: dword value named PivotOptions and set its value to 0. This should disable OFV from checking file with pivot tables.
Thanks from Singapore!
Today I was faced with this problem on a W2k3 Terminal Server.
I have successfully adopted your solution by putting it in this place:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel …
All user are happy now
Thx
Thanks from Malaysia
Thank so much solved my problem!!!
You are my Hero! Thanks! The tech “team” wanted to reimage all the machines (after they had, apparently, spent a day changing profiles, updating excel, etc., etc., – when I got wind of what they were up to and planning to do (!!!!), a 1 minute search on Google and badda-boom, badda-bing!).
What worked for me was removing MS File Validation Add-in.
I did not have KB982860, KB2570623 when i had the problem though.
Fantastic! I’ve been hunting for a solution to this problem forever! Load times were 5 minutes+ and now it’s near instant. Thanks again!
Wow…….the amount of time of could have saved while staring at my screen waiting excel to load.
4 words. You are the man. (I hope you are a man …_)
Tnx!!!!
The Microsoft fix-it worked for me because I was too lazy to go into the registry. I’m glad I found your page. I was wondering what happened to Excel for a week with slow loads.
Back to normal now.
Thanks Paris!!! It works. Excellent!
Thanks for posting. Excellent fix.
Thanks for the fix!
Thanks a lot for this solution, it’s helped me a lot !
You fixed lots and lots of complaining, and saved me from reformatting a computer. Thanks for posting the solution!
Works straight away for me. thanks
You completed a few fine points there. I did a search on the issue and found nearly all folks will have the same opinion with your blog.
Thanks for the fix.
Thanks for the info. Very accurate and helped us to solve this issue.
I hope you’re not getting tired of all the thank yous you’re receiving. I, too, was having the same problem. I downloaded and ran your patch and it worked instantly!! So, THANK YOU!!!!!
Welldone!! I have searched all over for a fix! Thanks, really appreciated
this is most useful information.
Thanks alot for the fix!
Unfortunally just the reg-fix didn’t do the trick. I had to remove the complete update “Microsoft Office File Validation Add-In”.
I tried to do a Approve for uninstall in WSUS but that didn’t work because it was not supported in the update (Details). Then I tried to use wusa.exe (windows 7 install/uninstall) with the KB number (KB2501584) but then I got the error that this KB could not be found while it was listed in the “Programs and Features”.
So in the end i created a new GPO with a startup script for the computer object that removed the update via the OFC.msi file.
The complete script is:
net use x: \\server.domain.nl\DeploySoftware
%WINDIR%\System32\msiexec.exe /uninstall “x:\Microsoft Office File Validation Add-In\OFV.msi” /quiet
net use /delete x:
Regards,
Dennis de Vries
U are toooo good… Thank You
Thank You. Worked like a charm. Change a 15 minute opening time to the normal few seconds!
I work with windows7, and I had the same problem. Now it woks fine! Thank you!
It’s really work and fix my problem just few second…
Thank you
Hello,
Thanks for the trick! I had several users here with the same problem and adding the key and value to their registry solved immediatly the problem.
Thank you! I created a group policy that pushes this regfix to all remote users that open files over our WAN, and this solved it for them!
Hello,
Thanks a Million…
Fixed !
Thanks for the Post…..
(Office 2003/Windows7)
perfect! worked on a Citrix 2003 box took ages to open an excel sheet. I uninstalled the File Validation tool in add/remove programs
What everyone else said. Your a genius!!! Thanks
thanks! this worked for me! i had this problem for the last 6 months…wish i googled this problem a lot earlier! hehe
genius!!!
Many thanks.
A similar problem exists on MS Word 2003. Simply repeat Paris’ fix but substitute ‘Word’ where he has used ‘Excel’.
Interestingly we have about 10 users on Windows 7 and this problem was affecting only 2 of them!