Thumbnails of Office 2003 documents do not appear in Windows 2000 Explorer (838877)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
  • the operating system: Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4
  • Microsoft Office Excel 2003
  • Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
  • Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
  • Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
  • Microsoft Office Word 2003
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Student and Teachers Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003
  • Microsoft Office Access 2003
Important This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

When you view a Microsoft Office 2003 document as a thumbnail in Microsoft Windows 2000 Explorer, a blank square with the Office 2003 program icon appears instead of the thumbnail of the Office 2003 document.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the Office 2003 Setup program removes the subkeys under the Shell Extension (ShellEx) key from the registry.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, add the appropriate subkeys to the Shell Extension (ShellEx) key back to the registry. To do this, follow these steps.

Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
  1. Quit all Office 2003 programs.
  2. Click Start, and then click Run.
  3. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
  4. Expand the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT subtree.
  5. Locate and then expand the Office 2003 extension, such as .ppt.
  6. Click ShellEx.
  7. With ShellEx selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
  8. Type {BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}, and then press ENTER.
  9. With the {BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1} subkey selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click String Value.
  10. Type (Default), and then press ENTER.
  11. With (Default) selected, click Modify on the Edit menu.
  12. Type {9DBD2C50-62AD-11d0-B806-00C04FD706EC} in the Value data box, and then click OK.
  13. Repeat steps 4 through 12 for each of the Office 2003 extensions (such as .doc or .xls) that are affected by the problem that is described in the "Symptoms" section.
  14. Click Exit on the Registry menu to quit Registry Editor.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:8/29/2006
Keywords:kbRegistry kbprb KB838877 kbAudEndUser
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