Desktop Shortcup Excel File

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I have a number of desktop shortcuts set up for my employees. Recently the folder path has stopped changing to the Start in folder set up in the shortcut. This has created a problem as some of the excel files have references to other files in the Start in folder. Does anyone have any idea why this sudden changed may have occurred?

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Please provide an example shortcut and exactly what doesn’t work?

cheers, Paul

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Ragott,

A couple more questions:
1. Is everyone using the same version of Excel?
2. Is everyone using the same version of Windows?
3. Is the Start In folder on the local machine on on another machine on the Lan?
4. How do the Shortcuts get on the machines, copied from another machine or manually added?

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I am responding to both responses above.
1. some are using XP Excel and others use 2003 Excel
2. everyone is using XP
3. the Start In folder is on a shared server
4. I added the shortcuts at the user’s PC from Windows Explorer

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Ragott,

The only thing I can think of is that for some reason the permissions on the LAN have changed. Have you tried accessing the Start folder from Windows Explorer on one of the affected machines?

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RG,
None of the permissions have changed. All of the users still have access to this server. It is the main server for our commonly shared files. I have resolved my initial problem by editing the macro that failed that led to my discovery of this chnge in behaviour. Before when the file was opened either with the shortcut or by clicking the file in Windows Explorer, the active foldfer in Excel would change to the folder that the file was started from. Now the only way that the active folder changes is when the file is opened from the file open menu command in Excel. It just bugs me when something works for a long time and then suddenly the behavior changes and no one knows why. In this instance everything worked as normal on Thursday but on the following Tuesday it didn’t.

Bob G.

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Bob,

Try setting up your shortcuts this way and see if the work better. I’m assuming here that the shortcuts are to specific excel files.

Place the following in the Target: field of the shortcut.

Code:

"C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOFFICE11EXCEL.EXE" /e /p "%MyDocs%ExcelArchives"  "%MyDocs%ExcelArchivesVBA for OBITS.xls"

Of course you’ll have to change the %MyDocs% in both places to the location of your file. I set up this Environment Variable so that I can copy shortcuts from machines to machine w/o having to change the shortcut. Each machine has MyDocs point to the appropriate directory be it C:Documents and Settings[Userid]My Documents on XP or C:Users[Userid}Documents on Win 7 or as I do on all my machines G:BEKDocs doesn’t matter as long as the environment variable is set properly on each machine. I also have one called MSOffice which points to the version of office installed on that machine {I changed that one above to the actual path} so I don’t even have to worry if a different version of Office is installed the shortcut will find it. YMMV.

EDIT: Here’s one of my Targets as an example:
“%MSOffice%EXCEL.EXE” /e /p “%MyDocs%ExcelArchives” “%MyDocs%ExcelArchivesVBA for OBITS.xls”

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RG,
That worked like a charm. Thak you vry much. It is a little more effort but at least I have a solution going forward. It does kind of make the Start In folder in the standard shortcut set up pretty useless.
Again, thank you very much for your assistance.

Bob G

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