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Excel External Content Blocked

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We have been encountering a new issue with Microsoft Excel and one of our clients had it today.  It took a little while to figure out, so we want to help out others in this situation.

 

Issue – Excel External/Web Content is Blocked: In most of our interactive applications, we allow for exporting data (either to csv or to xls extensions). By default, these downloads will open in Excel.  A recent update did something to Excel to prevent these files from opening.  It happened to my PC at home (just figured I did something). But then today, it happened at one of the client sites. Everything looks OK with the file when you download it, but either the file doesn’t open, or excel opens and there is no file there.  There is no error message or anything – the file just doesn’t open.

 

Resolution: When the file downloads, instead of opening the file, open the folder location to view the file. Right click the file, and click properties.  At the bottom of the window, there is an “Unblock” button. If you click unblock you can open the file. This shows that the file content is getting blocked because it came from the internet (external).  Unblocking it allows for opening the file (but you’d have to do that every time you download/open a file).  To not have to do it every time, you have to change excel settings.

 

Steps:
1. Open excel -> options -> trust center. Click “Trust Center Settings”.
2. Options -> Trust Center -> Click “Trust Center Settings”
3. Go to Protected View: Uncheck “Enable Protected View for files originating from the internet”.

 

After doing some research, it seems we are not the only ones experiencing this issue.  Here is a link to news article about it:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3098898/microsoft-windows/excel-refusing-to-open-files-blame-the-kb-3115322-3115262-security-updates.html

 

8/26/2016 Update – It seems like Microsoft has now resolved the issue.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/3106774/microsoft-windows/good-news-for-microsoft-office-renamed-html-files-now-open-in-excel.html#tk.twt_ifw

UNIX Quick Start Guides

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Unix (all-caps UNIX for the trademark) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, developed in the 1970s at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others.
From the power user’s or programmer’s perspective, Unix systems are characterized by a modular design that is sometimes called the “Unix philosophy”, meaning that the operating system provides a set of simple tools that each perform a limited, well-defined function, with a unified filesystem as the main means of communication and a shell scripting and command language to combine the tools to perform complex workflows. Aside from the modular design, Unix also distinguishes itself from its predecessors as the first portable operating system: almost the entire operating system is written in the C programming language that allowed Unix to reach numerous platforms. Read more.

 

There following are some resources to learn about UNIX:

— Unix Operating System
— Unix Commands Tutorial 1
— TutorialPoints Unix_Tutorial
— UNIX CheatSheets Unix_CheatSheet_1 Unix_CheatSheet_2

Getting Started with ASP.NET Web Forms and MS Visual Studio

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The .NET Framework (pronounced dot net) is a software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large class library known as Framework Class Library (FCL) and provides language interoperability (each language can use code written in other languages) across several programming languages. Programs written for .NET Framework execute in a software environment (as contrasted to hardware environment), known as Common Language Runtime (CLR), an application virtual machine that provides services such as security, memory management, and exception handling. FCL and CLR together constitute .NET Framework. Read more.

 

The following are some resources to learn about ASP.NET, Visual Studio and other Microsoft products:

— W3Schools ASP.NET 4 Tutorial
— Tutorial Points ASP.NET Tutorial
— MS Introduction to ASP.NET Web Forms
— ASP.NET Hands On Project ASP.NET Project
— Free Microsoft Training Delivered by Experts