Excel csv links open Internet Explorer and a dialog box instead of opening csv table in Excel

[nluck]

I have hyperlinked cells in my Excel file that used to open a .csv table directly in Excel (no interaction with Internet Explorer). An example of the link is:



http://ichart.finance.yahoo.com/table.csv?s=VTWV&a=01&b=01&c=1901&d=12&e=31&f=2099&g=d&ignore=.csv



Now, when I click the link above in Excel it opens Internet Explorer and displays a dialog box asking what I would like to do with the file: Open, Save, Save As. If I click Open, it opens the .csv table in Excel as before. However, this is undesirable because I don't want the interaction with Internet Explorer (I have Excel macros that execute this hyperlink and the Internet Explorer interaction stops the Excel macro; they worked fine as well before because there was no interaction with Internet Explorer too).


Prior to this, I could click on the above link in Excel and the csv table would open in Excel without any interaction with Internet Explorer. I have not knowingly changed any settings in Excel, Internet Explorer, or Windows Explorer (I say knowingly because I'm not sure if one of the programs did an auto-update?).



I've tried researching the problem online. One of the solutions I thought might work described editing the registry values. So I tried changing all the Excel classes BrowserFlags hexadecimal values data from 8 to 9, and then 10, and I tried deleting all the BrowserFlags (In HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT: Excel.Addin, Excel.Chart.8, Excel.OpenDocument.Spreadsheet.12, Excel.Sheet.12, Excel.Sheet.8, Excel.SheetBinaryMacroEnabled.12, Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12, Excel.Template, Excel.Template.8, Excel.TemplateMacroEnabled, Excel.Workspace, Excelxmlss). I restarted my computer between each time I tried something different but the same result described above occurred and didn't solve my problem. (I added all the BrowserFlags back and made sure they were all 8 as before).



I also tried changing all the Internet Explorer Settings (Tools-Internet Options-Security-Custon level...) from "Prompt" to "Enable" (Settings I changed were: Download signed ActiveX controls, Allow webpages to use restricted protocols for active content, Display Mixed content, Launching applications and unsafe files, Launching programs and files in IFRAME, and Allow Programmatic clipboard access). I restarted my computer and tried clicking the Excel link again but the same result occurred. I changed all the Internet Setting above back to Prompt.



I'm running Windows 8.1, using Internet Explorer 11, and Excel 2007, if that helps?.



Any idea what happened to now suddenly have this interaction with Excel? More importantly, what do I need to change back so that clicking on a link will open the .csv table in Excel without Internet Explorer interaction or action by the user?
nluck

 

[nluck]

I've restored my computer using Windows restore to a point when I know clicking on a link in Excel worked correctly--that didn't change what was happening. I changed the Windows update settings so they are NOT installed automatically after the windows restore so I can control what gets installed. I looked through the Microsoft provided information regarding the updates that are now available for install and nothing seemed obvious that might affect how clicking on links in Excel would suddenly open Internet Explorer as an interim step.

I repaired Microsoft Office using Control Panel-Programs and Features-Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007-Change-Repair. I also repaired the Microsoft Office installation directly from the DVD-ROM. Neither worked.

I tried looking through the settings in the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc in the Run prompt). There's a lot of settings here but nothing obvious jumped out that might affect how clicking on links in Excel would open Internet Explorer.

I copied the Excel file to another computer running Windows 7, using Internet Explorer 11 and Excel 2010. It opened Google Chrome when clicking on the link in Excel (Google Chrome is set as the default for .htm and .html files and Excel is set for .csv file types). There is a selection box in lower-left corner of Chrome to "Open, Always open files of this type, Show in folder". I clicked Open and the csv file opened in Excel. I clicked Always open files of this type (a check appeared next to this selection), closed Chrome, then clicked on my link in Excel again. Chrome opened again then opened the csv file Excel. I went to Control Panel-Programs-Default Programs-Set Default Programs-clicked Internet Explorer-clicked Set this program as default (.htm and .html file types are not set to open with Internet Explorer). I opened my Excel File and clicked on my link and now Internet Explorer opens asking to Open, Save, or Save As--back to where I was on my computer. Still not working correctly, or like Excel used to..... is this what my wits end looks like....I think I've run out of things to try?

 

[John_w]

Try changing IE's security options. I don't know where they are in IE11, but in IE8 it is Tools - Internet Options - Security tab - Internet zone - Custom level and change the options in the Downloads section. You might need to add finance.yahoo.com as a Trusted Site and change the Downloads options there.

 

[nluck]

Thanks for the response. However, that didn't do the trick either.
In Internet Explorer, I went to Tools-Internet options-Security-Trusted sites-site and added: Yahoo!, http://www.finance.yaoo.com, https://ichart.finance.yahoo.com, and ichart.finace.yahoo.com. I closed the "Sites" window and clicked on Custom level... and under Downloads, File download is set to Enable. Any other suggestions.

Other new info on the problem. I went back to an old computer I have (running Windows Vista Home SP2, Excel 2002, and Internet Explorer 9, and the same thing happened-still getting the Open, Save, Save As prompt. I have not gone through all the above trials on that computer but I did check tha .csv is associated to Excel.

 

[John_w]

Try disabling 'Automatic prompting for file downloads' in the section I mentioned. Also try clearing IE cookies, history, etc.