Excel.exe is not a valid Win32 Application.

[Matthew]

My system: Vista Business 32bit with SP1, Office 2007 Professional with SP1.

For a while I was running Vista (without SP1) and using Office 2007 with
SP1. Rarely any issues.

Sometime after installing Vista SP1, I've been having odd issues with my
Office installation, Excel especially. I don't know if it's its SP1 related,
or if it's just something went wrong with the Office install.

Here's the issue. I leave my PC on 24/7 and simply lock it when I leave the
office. After several days, Excel will just stop working, completely. When
I try to launch excel I get the error "Excel.exe is not a valid Win32
application".

I have tried reapplying SP1. After reapplying the SP1 and rebooting,
everything returned to normal. So I thought. A week or so later, same
issue. It turns out simply rebooting resolves the issue temporarily.

I thought my Excel exe was corrupted (i.e. some file wrote/deleted
information from the binary file). I verified modified dates with other
excel exe's and everything is the same. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

I can't find any relevant errors in my event log. I can't see anything out
of the ordinary when using SysInternal's process monitor either. It's like
something in Vista thinks this EXE is a bad EXE and it won't let it launch
until I reboot.

I have even noticed after several times of launching the exe, if I browsed
to the installation directory, the actual icon for Excel was dimmed, as if it
was like a hidden file or something. WTH? When I rebooted, it returned to
the normal icon. I have yet to see the icon dim again, even during times of
issue.

I disabled my antivirus thinking it was the culprit to no avail.

What in the world could be happening? When I use the process monitor, the
exe never even gets executed (i.e. no events for excel.exe).

Please help!!!
-Matthew

 

[Matthew]

FYI, right after posting this I went back to trying to launch the excel exe.
Of course same error. I copied the exe but with a diff name within the same
directory. Same error launching that exe.

There's another excel related exe in the same directory. It's called
excelcnv.exe. I tried launching that. It too reports invalid win32
application.

I fired up a search for anything named excel* on my entire C drive. While
it's finding a variety of files, I tried to launch excel again. THIS TIME IT
WORKED?!?! WTH!

This makes no sense!

 

[Jim Rech]

Searching (ok, "Googling") on your error message found two recent posts to a
Vista group re the same Excel problem and both attributing it to Vista SP1.
No help but FYI.

--
Jim
| FYI, right after posting this I went back to trying to launch the excel
exe.
| Of course same error. I copied the exe but with a diff name within the
same
| directory. Same error launching that exe.
|
| There's another excel related exe in the same directory. It's called
| excelcnv.exe. I tried launching that. It too reports invalid win32
| application.
|
| I fired up a search for anything named excel* on my entire C drive. While
| it's finding a variety of files, I tried to launch excel again. THIS TIME
IT
| WORKED?!?! WTH!
|
| This makes no sense!
|
| "Matthew" wrote:
|
| > My system: Vista Business 32bit with SP1, Office 2007 Professional with
SP1.
| >
| > For a while I was running Vista (without SP1) and using Office 2007 with
| > SP1. Rarely any issues.
| >
| > Sometime after installing Vista SP1, I've been having odd issues with my
| > Office installation, Excel especially. I don't know if it's its SP1
related,
| > or if it's just something went wrong with the Office install.
| >
| > Here's the issue. I leave my PC on 24/7 and simply lock it when I leave
the
| > office. After several days, Excel will just stop working, completely.
When
| > I try to launch excel I get the error "Excel.exe is not a valid Win32
| > application".
| >
| > I have tried reapplying SP1. After reapplying the SP1 and rebooting,
| > everything returned to normal. So I thought. A week or so later, same
| > issue. It turns out simply rebooting resolves the issue temporarily.
| >
| > I thought my Excel exe was corrupted (i.e. some file wrote/deleted
| > information from the binary file). I verified modified dates with other
| > excel exe's and everything is the same. Nothing seems out of the
ordinary.
| >
| > I can't find any relevant errors in my event log. I can't see anything
out
| > of the ordinary when using SysInternal's process monitor either. It's
like
| > something in Vista thinks this EXE is a bad EXE and it won't let it
launch
| > until I reboot.
| >
| > I have even noticed after several times of launching the exe, if I
browsed
| > to the installation directory, the actual icon for Excel was dimmed, as
if it
| > was like a hidden file or something. WTH? When I rebooted, it returned
to
| > the normal icon. I have yet to see the icon dim again, even during
times of
| > issue.
| >
| > I disabled my antivirus thinking it was the culprit to no avail.
| >
| > What in the world could be happening? When I use the process monitor,
the
| > exe never even gets executed (i.e. no events for excel.exe).
| >
| > Please help!!!
| > -Matthew

 

[Matthew]

Thanks for your reply. That's interesting. I've been searching all over for
help with this before posting and couldn't find anything. *sigh*. Now I see
a lot of posts on this.

While irritated I guess since it's not just me I feel better. I'll wait for
MS to fix this.

I also noticed someone said when the issue happens, marking Excel.exe to use
compatibility mode for XP, it will launch fine. Immediately removing
compatibility mode, it continues to work. I will try this out vs the
rebooting I've been doing.

 

[JimMarkgraf]

Matthew, not sure if you've already seen it or not, but MS has a patch out
that should fix this issue. I had been having the same problem since
installing SP1 on my work machine and never bothered looking for the fix (I
have bigger fish to fry)... Anyway, here's the link to the patch.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952709

 

[Matthew]

You my friend, are the BEST! I could never find anything on MS's site for
this. Their search leaves a lot to be desired.

Anyhow, I will give this a shot (if my automatic updates hadn't already got
it). Thank you!

 

[JimMarkgraf]

My automatic updates hadn't picked it up. I've installed it and we'll see
how it goes.

 

[Matthew]

Ditto. I see it came out only 3 days ago. Might take time to hit automatic
updates, if it does at all.

Thanks again for the info! Now if I can fix my other SP1 issue (when I lock
my PC half the time my screen goes black with just a cursor). Seems like SP1
is playing hell with my ATI video card drivers and the last I checked, I had
the latest. *shrug*.

 

[JimMarkgraf]

I'm in the same boat with an nVidia card... Glad I could help you out

 

[Roger Govier]

Hi

If you are not getting a solution via the updates, in the short term the
following fix usually resolves this problem
Windows Explorer>Windows>Prefetch> delete all entries

The Prefetch cache will be rebuilt as you load new applications, and the "
Excel.exe is not a valid Win32 Application." should disappear.

 

[JimMarkgraf]

Thanks for the advice Roger. So far, the patch seems to have resolved the
issue for me. Never crossed my mind to dump the prefetch cache.