This Operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer, Please contact your administrator

Question

I am getting the error message "This Operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer, Please contact your administrator" in Excel 2010 (win 7) when try to open a hyperlink to a pdf file located on a shared network drive. The file path on the hyperlink is correct. Did anybody else have this same issue and find a solution to it? It seems all the issues online involve a hyperlink to a www.

Answer 1

Found a solution. I ran cmd as admin and then ran the following commands:

REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.htm /ve /d htmlfile /f

REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.html /ve /d htmlfile /f

REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.shtml /ve /d htmlfile /f

REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.xht /ve /d htmlfile /f

REG ADD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.xhtml /ve /d htmlfile /f

Answer 2

Possible cause: There was an installation/uninstallation of Google Chrome, perhaps without you noticing it.

You may try

1. Close Outlook
2. Open Internet Explorer.
3. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
4. Click the Advanced tab, and then click the Reset button.
5. On the Programs tab, under Internet programs, click Set Programs, then “Set your Default Programs”, select your e-mail program and click “Set this program as Default”. Repeat for Internet Explorer.
6. Click OK and close the dialogs.

See links below, with other things to try.

http://www.slipstick.com/problems/this-operation-has-been-cancelled-due-to-restrictions/

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-outlook/cant-open-any-hyperlinks-this-operation-has-been/8815ad6c-0f44-477a-9ffa-beb98109b5a6

Answer 3

This error occurs when someone or some thing has blocked an application from running on your computer. On a corporate network it may be a policy set by your administrator. If you see this error at home, it’s almost always because a virus has restricted you from running programs you may use to remove it.

Fixing “This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer” There are two ways in which programs can be restricted in Windows. The first is through the Registry. The second is through Group Policy. Try the Registry method first, and if it doesn’t fix the problem try the Group Policy method.

Fixing the Registry Programs can be kept from running by adding them to a key called DisallowRun in the Windows Registry. To remove these restrictions, follow the following steps. Open regedit by clicking your start button and typing regedit and pressing enter. On Windows XP, Click Start, then run, then type regedit. Find \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\ and delete the key called DisallowRun or just delete the subkeys affecting your program.

Fixing Group Policy Applications can also be kept from executing via Group Policy. To remove these restrictions follow these instructions. Open Local Group Policy Editor by clicking Start and typing gpedit.msc. Expand User Configuration. Expand Administrative Templates. Expand System. On the right-hand side locate a setting called Don’t run specified Windows applications. Double-click that setting and change it to Not Configured.

Original Source Link:

Answer 4

Excel 2007 on Win 10 20H2 - Excel 2007 embedded hyperlinks caused the OP's same error. Added new reg entries to add the missing open command to the HKCR/htmlfile class. On my system, specific XL file macros cause app crash of newer Office but run flawlessly on 2007. Go figure! Excel 2007 and 2016 hyperlinks now work from same XL file on both installed Excel versions. Firefox 64 is set as default browser.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open]
@="&Open"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe\" -osint -url \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\shell\open\ddeexec]

Answer 5

Just ran across this problem myself after installing/uninstalling Chrome. This was further complicated by recently upgrading from Firefox 32-bit to Firefox 64-bit v55.x. Result: Win registry "forgets" how to open a hyperlink. You need to clean up the registry to remind it how.

All together, this messed up my registry for opening hyperlinks. Firefox has been and remains my preferred browser. So any instruction that involves reverting to IE is a hijack, not a solution.

You need to understand the registry to clean this up properly.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT:

• .htm, .html, .shtml, .xht, .xhtml keys were all set with a (Default) REG_SZ value of "FirefoxHTML" (without quotes)

• the FirefoxHTML key, however, had no instruction for opening a FirefoxHTML doc type

• so I simply had to add these registry keys/values:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open]
@="&Open"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe\" -osint -url \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open\ddeexec]

This provided a clear open instruction.

Firefox 64-bit may have added a new class key "FirefoxHTML-308046B0AF4A39CB", which did have an "shell\open" subkey, which I used as source for reg entries, above.

However, see first bullet, above: file extensions were still pointing to "FirefoxHTML" rather than this "FirefoxHTML-308046B0AF4A39CB" that did have the shell\open instruction.

So potentially valid alternative approach would have been to simply point those file types to "FirefoxHTML-308046B0AF4A39CB" rather than "FirefoxHTML".

Sticking to my policy of minimal necessary registry change, simply adding the FirefoxHTML\shell\open... subkey was the minimal change that I needed to make.

Answer 6

I had this problem in Excel 2007 operating on Windows 10. My solution after much head scratching was to re-load Internet Explorer using Control Panel - Programs and Features - Turn Windows features on or off. I won't try and explain the logic - der.