Forms Based Authenticated users cannot open Microsoft Office documents ~ IT Pro Ramblings

21 December 2008

Forms Based Authenticated users cannot open Microsoft Office documents

by Patrik Luca 0 comments

Problem Description: Forms Based Authenticated users cannot open Microsoft Office documents

You have configured your Web Application to use Forms Based Authentication. Users cannot open Microsoft Office documents such as Microsoft Word or Excel files. Non-Office documents open without problem. When a user tries to open a Microsoft Office document, the Microsoft Office program is launched (such as Word), but the file, stored in a SharePoint document library, is not opened. In stead, the user sees something which is similar to the login page to which a user is redirected for a Web Application configured with Forms as Authentication Type. The document opened is also indicated as being the login.aspx page.

Solution: check the Sign me in automatically box while logging in

The user should check the Sign me in automatically box while logging in. This is the easy workaround, but you'll not always be able to teach your users this way.

Another, more user-friendly, solution, is to check the box by default. To achieve this, follow these steps:

Open the login.aspx page in edit mode. The login.aspx page resides in the _layouts folder (%Program Files%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS).
After the </asp:login> closing tag, add following code lines:

<script language=javascript>
document.getElementById("ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_login_RememberMe").checked = true;
</script>
Execute an iisreset.

21 December 2008