OLE error 800A03EC when sending to Excel

(1) By anonymous on 2020-11-12 20:12:03 [link] [source]

I have a user that just got a new laptop and is trying to send data from the results of a cut report to Excel using SQLite. Every time they send it starts to process, and then they receive "OLE error 800A03EC." Excel never opens, but it does start a process in task manager.

They are using the same exact version of SQLite and Excel 2016 as their previous computer, which works without issue. Both computers are running Windows 10.

I have verified that all the Excel settings are the same. Ran quick and online repairs on M365, .NET 3.5 and 4.8 are installed, tried running 8.1 compatibility mode, check the file system integrity, among other troubleshooting steps. 

I can export the desktop and open in Excel, although the spreadsheet does look at little different

I do not believe there is any issues with the data in the SQL database, as the issue is local to this one computer.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

(2) By Keith Medcalf (kmedcalf) on 2020-11-12 22:31:44 in reply to 1 [source]

This is a Windows error message that usually indicates that there is a permission error (or missing directory) which is detected when there is an attempt to "execute" the data file.

That is, the "output to excel" is a misnomer. The output is to a temporary CSV file. This CSV file is then executed as a ShellOpen command line and the magical mysteries of Windows attempts to "figure out" which application is able to open such a file and then opens that application and passes it the filename of the temporary csv file.

In the particular case of Excel (and many other MUI gooeys, the registry entry rather than trying to open an instance of the application directly will use OLE to send a command to an already existing instance of Excel to open the file (which is why you have to go to fantastically great lengths to open multiple instances of Excel or other MUI gooeys that are configured in this manner).