Sharepoint Foundation. Documents opening in browser instead of client application

Question

I need to have all the documents in Sharepoint opens in client applications. I set the appropriate setting in the admin page, but it doesn't work for all users. Also I tried to set this in library settings, result was similar. I think the reason may be on a client side, but I haven't found it. All users with this trouble have IE7 and MS Office 2003. Does anybody know, how i could handle this?

Answer 1

I would think that the server is checking if the user has Office installed locally. This is achieved by trying to activate an object from the ActiveX control installed by Office locally. You can find this DLL under c:\program files\microsoft office\office12[14]\OWSSUPP.dll. If this dll fails to load, for instance, missing or not registered probably, SharePoint assumes that no local client software is installed. You can register the DLL or run repair on the Office installation, that should fix the problem