Permission Denied opening an Excel File using Excel 12.0 Library & VB6

Question

I have used Excel in my VB6 apps many times before, and have never run into such a weird problem trying to accomplish something very easy..

I am trying to open an excel (xls or xlsx) file and read through values, as you can probably see.

When I try to open the file, I get an error 70 (permission denied) error. The odd thing is that there is no other instance of excel open (in task manager apps or processes). No one else is trying to access the file whatsoever. I can open the file in excel with no warning, and I can also open/read/close the file in VB6 with the basic "Open File for Input as #1" syntax without error. I can delete the file using Kill() so it can't be a directory permissions issue - Please help - I am at a loss!!!

  Dim xlApp As New Excel.Application

  Dim xlWBook As Excel.Workbook

  'Error Occurs Here
  Set xlWBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(File)

  Dim xlSheet As Excel.Worksheet
  Set xlSheet = xlWBook.Sheets.Item(1)

  Dim y As Integer
  For y = 1 To 99999
    If Len(xlSheet.Cells(y, 1)) > 0 Then
      Send xlSheet.Cells(y, 1) & " - " & xlSheet.Cells(y, 2) & "<br>"
    End If
  Next

  Set xlWBook = Nothing
  Set xlApp = Nothing

-Jay

Answer 1

Can you open a newly created empty spreadsheet document?

If that doesn't work it might be that your Excel installation needs to be re-registered. Open a command prompt and navigate to the folder where Excel is installed, typically something like

cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12"

and then start Excel with the option /regserver

excel.exe /regserver

If this doesn't help you could go to Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs and start a repair of Microsoft Office.

Another thing to check would be whether there are any add-ins loaded. If so, try to disable them one by one and see whether the problem disappears.

If the problem still persists you might want to check for any Office updates available.

I don't know if all this is related to your problem, it's rather standard troubleshooting techniques of Office applications...

UPDATE: Maybe troubleshooting with Procmon will reveal where the problem lies (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/286198).

Answer 2

Maybe it's not the file that the permission is denied to.

Answer 3

Divo, thanks for the quick reply -

To answer your question, oddly enough.... no..... I can not...

It must be a directory issue - but if that was the case, wouldn't my ability to delete and "open file for input as #1" also be denied?

Answer 4

Divo, all good ideas, but nothing doing. I have a BARE-BONES excel running. I barely use the actual application. I performed the other task from dos as well, but nothing seems to change. Any other ideas?

Answer 5

Just a thought, have you looked at the Windows event log to see if you can find more information there?

Answer 6

Yes, thank you. I did look and there is nothing mentioned... Razzel Frazzel.

Answer 7

This could happen when there is a problem in the excel file, a consistency problem. The file is kind of corrupted.

For example, there are 2 objects on the sheet with the same name. The point is, I cannot tell how it's been possible that your file has been saved with this kind of "problem" but when Excel try to open it, it throws this kind of error.

Answer 8

Have you checked your DCOM config.

Had a similar issue today, where a web service that was trying to create the Excel.Application was receiving a access denied.

In my instance I had to add the internet guest account to have access permissions to the component.

You can get to the DCOM config from Start -> Run

Type DCOMCNFG - hit enter

Then browse to Component Services/Computers/My Computer/DCOM Config/Microsoft Excel Application

Right click, properties...

The settings are under the Security tab.

Answer 9

You seem to create a new Excel instance without explicitly closing it (i.e. xlApp.Close before setting it to Nothing). That may be the cause of you problems.

Some times stuff goes haywire if there is some loose instances of Office Apps running about when calling them from VBA. If you have some Excel.exe running in the task manager but you can't see the application on the screen or task bar then kill them and retry.