Office 365/2016 hyperlink crashing issue since Creators Update?

Any Office 365 / 2016 users around? There's something seriously wrong
here with my Excel 365's Edit Hyperlink dialog. Tried many things,
googled widely and posted to two Excel forums but so far no solution.
Apparently related to Creators Update.

Hopefully my illustration summarises the issue.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zwru3j4zh...lem-2.jpg?dl=0

The hyperlink shown works fine. (When clicked it opens that JPG in its
associated program, IrfanView.) But if I click anything else Excel
crashes and restarts with 'Microsoft Excel has stopped working'.

FWIW I originally entered the Address in full path form. On opening the
Edit Hyperlink window subsequently that always becomes just the
filename, with the path apparently applied from the 'Look in' box.
Although it's a secondary concern compared to the crashing, I'd prefer
it to stay as a full path.

I eventually found this long thread. It's mainly about the even more
serious issue of Office crashing when any attempt is made to insert a
hyperlink. But at least one contributor raised what seems the same
problem as my own:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6dd15b5?auth=1
Or:
https://tinyurl.com/ybt3sapt

My post is currently the last.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Any Office 365 / 2016 users around? There's something seriously wrong
here with my Excel 365's Edit Hyperlink dialog. Tried many things,
googled widely and posted to two Excel forums but so far no solution.
Apparently related to Creators Update.

Hopefully my illustration summarises the issue.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zwru3j4zh...lem-2.jpg?dl=0

The hyperlink shown works fine. (When clicked it opens that JPG in its
associated program, IrfanView.) But if I click anything else Excel
crashes and restarts with 'Microsoft Excel has stopped working'.

FWIW I originally entered the Address in full path form. On opening the
Edit Hyperlink window subsequently that always becomes just the
filename, with the path apparently applied from the 'Look in' box.
Although it's a secondary concern compared to the crashing, I'd prefer
it to stay as a full path.

I eventually found this long thread. It's mainly about the even more
serious issue of Office crashing when any attempt is made to insert a
hyperlink. But at least one contributor raised what seems the same
problem as my own:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6dd15b5?auth=1
Or:
https://tinyurl.com/ybt3sapt

My post is currently the last.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

As you admit in that thread, to having used God Mode
in Office, wouldn't it pay to hunt that down and
eliminate it ?

Or, if there is a switch somewhere that can turn it off,
use that switch and re-test ?

Paul

In article ,
lid says...
Any Office 365 / 2016 users around? There's something seriously wrong
here with my Excel 365's Edit Hyperlink dialog


I use Excel 2016 on a bog standard unmodified Windows 10 installation
and have spreadsheets in daily use which contain dozens of hyperlinks to
files, URLS and so on.
I have not experienced any problems similar to those you and other
posters describe.

Terry Pinnell wrote:

Any Office 365 / 2016 users around? There's something seriously wrong
here with my Excel 365's Edit Hyperlink dialog. Tried many things,
googled widely and posted to two Excel forums but so far no solution.
Apparently related to Creators Update.

Hopefully my illustration summarises the issue.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zwru3j4zh...lem-2.jpg?dl=0

The hyperlink shown works fine. (When clicked it opens that JPG in its
associated program, IrfanView.) But if I click anything else Excel
crashes and restarts with 'Microsoft Excel has stopped working'.

FWIW I originally entered the Address in full path form. On opening the
Edit Hyperlink window subsequently that always becomes just the
filename, with the path apparently applied from the 'Look in' box.
Although it's a secondary concern compared to the crashing, I'd prefer
it to stay as a full path.

I eventually found this long thread. It's mainly about the even more
serious issue of Office crashing when any attempt is made to insert a
hyperlink. But at least one contributor raised what seems the same
problem as my own:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6dd15b5?auth=1
Or:
https://tinyurl.com/ybt3sapt

My post is currently the last.

I don't use Excel much. In your screenshot, you show the highlighted
URL that does work. When you select that cell in Excel, the input or
content bar should show the contents of that cell, like the URL string.
When you select a different cell with a file URI string (using the arrow
keys instead of clicking on the cell), what shows in the content bar for
the contents of the "bad" cell?

https://imgur.com/a/zzr4G

I don't see you escaped the backslashes in the path to the files. While
not necessary for local files within Excel, I would still escape the
backslashes in the path to the file (use double backslashes).

For the other image links, you have don't specify a path. How would
Excel know where to find them without a path? I doubt the images are in
the current path (where is Excel installed or where is the spreadsheet
is saved and is currently editing). However, I wouldn't think Excel
should crash because it cannot find a non-pathed file in whatever is its
current directory. Instead it should give a "Not found" or similar
error dialog.

Have you tried changing the filetype association of .jpg files to, say,
back to Windows Photo Viewer (or whatever is the bundled viewer app in
Windows 10) and retrying those file URIs in Excel? Tried disabling your
anti-virus program and retrying?

When I try to open a file URI stored within a cell within Excel (e.g.,
file:\\C:\\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\\root\CLIPART\\PUB60COR\\J0099145.JPG),
Excel pops up a warning dialog saying:

Microsoft Office has detected a potential security concern.
This location may be unsafe.
/yadda yadda/
Do you want to continue?

You don't get that security prompt? That path is not in the default
list of Trusted Locations and why I get the prompt. Did you add the
paths you showed as trusted locations to Excel to avoid the prompt?

Just to check, what happens when you load File Explorer, navigate to the
folder with the JPG files (that you linked to in the Excel document),
and double-click on those files? Does the viewer pops up okay with that
file loaded in it?

Paul wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Any Office 365 / 2016 users around? There's something seriously wrong
here with my Excel 365's Edit Hyperlink dialog. Tried many things,
googled widely and posted to two Excel forums but so far no solution.
Apparently related to Creators Update.

Hopefully my illustration summarises the issue.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zwru3j4zh...lem-2.jpg?dl=0

The hyperlink shown works fine. (When clicked it opens that JPG in its
associated program, IrfanView.) But if I click anything else Excel
crashes and restarts with 'Microsoft Excel has stopped working'.

FWIW I originally entered the Address in full path form. On opening the
Edit Hyperlink window subsequently that always becomes just the
filename, with the path apparently applied from the 'Look in' box.
Although it's a secondary concern compared to the crashing, I'd prefer
it to stay as a full path.

I eventually found this long thread. It's mainly about the even more
serious issue of Office crashing when any attempt is made to insert a
hyperlink. But at least one contributor raised what seems the same
problem as my own:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6dd15b5?auth=1
Or:
https://tinyurl.com/ybt3sapt

My post is currently the last.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

As you admit in that thread, to having used God Mode
in Office, wouldn't it pay to hunt that down and
eliminate it ?

Or, if there is a switch somewhere that can turn it off,
use that switch and re-test ?

Paul

Thanks, yes, sorted!

As you'll see in that thread, prompted by Richard Tomkins' reply, I
simply renamed
C:\Users\terry\Desktop\GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
to
C:\Users\terry\Desktop\GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C.bak}
and all was well again.

Bizarre cause, but I'm delighted to get the use of my hyperlinks back
again.

Ironic that it was only because I saw it recommended in that very thread
that I created the GOD folder, under the impression that it was safe in
C:\Users\terry\Desktop !

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

VanguardLH wrote:

Terry Pinnell wrote:

Any Office 365 / 2016 users around? There's something seriously wrong
here with my Excel 365's Edit Hyperlink dialog. Tried many things,
googled widely and posted to two Excel forums but so far no solution.
Apparently related to Creators Update.

Hopefully my illustration summarises the issue.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8zwru3j4zh...lem-2.jpg?dl=0

The hyperlink shown works fine. (When clicked it opens that JPG in its
associated program, IrfanView.) But if I click anything else Excel
crashes and restarts with 'Microsoft Excel has stopped working'.

FWIW I originally entered the Address in full path form. On opening the
Edit Hyperlink window subsequently that always becomes just the
filename, with the path apparently applied from the 'Look in' box.
Although it's a secondary concern compared to the crashing, I'd prefer
it to stay as a full path.

I eventually found this long thread. It's mainly about the even more
serious issue of Office crashing when any attempt is made to insert a
hyperlink. But at least one contributor raised what seems the same
problem as my own:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6dd15b5?auth=1
Or:
https://tinyurl.com/ybt3sapt

My post is currently the last.

I don't use Excel much. In your screenshot, you show the highlighted
URL that does work. When you select that cell in Excel, the input or
content bar should show the contents of that cell, like the URL string.
When you select a different cell with a file URI string (using the arrow
keys instead of clicking on the cell), what shows in the content bar for
the contents of the "bad" cell?

https://imgur.com/a/zzr4G

I don't see you escaped the backslashes in the path to the files. While
not necessary for local files within Excel, I would still escape the
backslashes in the path to the file (use double backslashes).

For the other image links, you have don't specify a path. How would
Excel know where to find them without a path? I doubt the images are in
the current path (where is Excel installed or where is the spreadsheet
is saved and is currently editing). However, I wouldn't think Excel
should crash because it cannot find a non-pathed file in whatever is its
current directory. Instead it should give a "Not found" or similar
error dialog.

Have you tried changing the filetype association of .jpg files to, say,
back to Windows Photo Viewer (or whatever is the bundled viewer app in
Windows 10) and retrying those file URIs in Excel? Tried disabling your
anti-virus program and retrying?

When I try to open a file URI stored within a cell within Excel (e.g.,
file:\\C:\\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\\root\CLIPART\\PUB60COR\\J0099145.JPG),
Excel pops up a warning dialog saying:

Microsoft Office has detected a potential security concern.
This location may be unsafe.
/yadda yadda/
Do you want to continue?

You don't get that security prompt? That path is not in the default
list of Trusted Locations and why I get the prompt. Did you add the
paths you showed as trusted locations to Excel to avoid the prompt?

Just to check, what happens when you load File Explorer, navigate to the
folder with the JPG files (that you linked to in the Excel document),
and double-click on those files? Does the viewer pops up okay with that
file loaded in it?

Thanks, but happily as you see from my reply to Paul it's now sorted.

I think you have some misunderstandings about the way that dialog works.
Both the 'Address' and 'Look in' are used to develop the file location.
And no escape characters are needed. I add the whole path in the Address
box - but on reopening it Excel has adjusted it to that 'relative' form.
I don't really fully understand it. Particularly the role of the
'Hyperlink Base', set he
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekusum2np2...ase-1.jpg?dl=0

It doesn't seem necessary to set it, although naturally I experimented
in the course of my troubleshooting.

That's an interesting point you make about Trusted Locations. I had
indeed added that path, C:\Users\terry\Dropbox\FinishedWalks\, to
Excel's Trusted Locations. Prompted by your reply I just tried adding a
new hyperlink to a file in a different location:
D:\Pictures\PHOTOS\Chartham Park\20160601-121930.jpg
It opened without fuss. (It also opened from the Win 10 Run box.)

And it was only during the last few days while troubleshooting this
issue that I *added* that trusted location (one more potential fix, in
vain). Yet for 15 months or so since installing Excel 365 on this Win 10
PC I've been cheerfully using hyperlinks to all sorts of locations.

Which leaves me pondering on how 'Trusted Locations' is to be
interpreted?

Terry, East Grinstead, UK