If you receive an error There was a problem sending the command to the program on Excel, Word, Internet Explorer in Windows 11/10/8/7, while using desktop shortcuts, internet links, etc, then this article will help you.
There was a problem sending the command to the program
You might get this error message while clicking on Desktop shortcuts, Internet links, opening Word or Excel documents, etc.
Microsoft Office programs
It’s reported that this error is faced when we are trying to open Excel or Word documents.
To fix that issue we have to change Dynamic Data Exchange or DDE setting. But first, create a system restore point before proceeding.
In Excel:
- Open Excel go to File and Click on Options
- Then click on advance
- Uncheck on Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)
- Then restart Excel (or Word).
If these do not help, then our author Kapil Arya has another suggestion:
Windows provides several methods for transferring data between applications, Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) protocol is one of them. The DDE protocol is a set of messages and guidelines. It sends messages between applications that share data and uses shared memory to exchange data between applications. The components inside Microsoft‘s productivity suite, i.e. Office uses the DDE protocol.
If disabling DDE via the UI does not work for you, try the following method using Windows Registry.
1. Press Windows Key + R combination, type put Regedt32.exe in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate here:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec
3. In the left pane, export the ddeexec key by highlighting the key and click File -> Export.
After exporting it to a convenient place, you can right-click over the same key and select Delete:
After deleting the key, you can close the Registry Editor. After a reboot, you would be no longer getting the error.
Internet Explorer
Most of the time setting Internet Explorer as the default web browser will fix the problem.
- Open Internet Explorer
- Go to Tools and click on Internet Options
- Then click on Programs Tab
- Then Click on “Make Default”
If that does not resolve your problem then we might need to reset IE settings.
Microsoft Fix It
Microsoft has also released Fix It solutions to help resolve this issue:
- Windows 8 users may download Microsoft Fix it 20074.
- Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2003 users may download Microsoft Fix it 50392.
- If you receive this error message while using Microsoft Excel, use Microsoft Fix It KB21149. It will Turn off the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) setting.
If you face this problem when you click on any program shortcut, you might want to consider deleting the old shortcut and creating a new one in its place. This is known to work many times.
