FIX: There was a problem sending the command to the program on Windows 7

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If you receive error There was a problem sending the command to the program on Windows 7, while using desktop shortcuts, internet links or Excel, then this article will help you.

There was a problem sending the command to the program

You might get this error message while click on Desktop shortcuts and Internet links etc. Most of the times setting Internet Explorer as default web browser used to fix the problem.

  • Open Internet Explorer
  • Go to Tools and click on Internet Options
  • Then click on Programs Tab

1 310x400 FIX: There was a problem sending the command to the program on Windows 7

  • Then Click on “Make Default”

If that does not resolve your problem then we might need to reset your IE settings. Follow this link to find more on this.

It’s also reported that this error is faced when we are try to open Excel documents as well.

To fix that issue we have to change DDE setting in Excel.

For Excel 2010:

  • Open Excel go to File and Click on Options
  • Then click on advance

2 600x334 FIX: There was a problem sending the command to the program on Windows 7

  • Uncheck on “Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)”
  • Then restart Excel.

Hope it helps!

If you face this problem when you click on any program shortcut, you might want to consider deleting the old shortcut and creating a new one in its place. This is known to work many a times!

Posted by on , in Category Windows with Tags , ,
Shyam aka “Captain Jack” is a Microsoft MVP and a Windows Enthusiast whose area of expertise is Crash Dump Analysis and Advanced Windows troubleshooting. He has developed Windows based Tools like SF IE Restorator for troubleshooting Internet Explorer issues and SF Diagnostic Tool for collecting Crash dump files for troubleshooting purpose. He blogs at captaindbg.com.

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  • KimG

    This doesn’t fix the problem.

  • User123

    The above solution is not helpful for VC++ applications.

    I am working on a standard Visual C++ MFC application. There is a file say x.abc, whenver I double click this file, it opens directly in my VC++ app.

    This VC app is running as administrator and that is the requirement of the project.

    Case 1: Now, in Windows 7, when User Access Control (UAC) is ON, and I double click on file with .abc extenstion, it gives error message “There was a Problem sending the command to program” and the file doesn’t open and neither does that app.

    Case 2: If my VC exe is already open and then I double click .abc file, it gives error “There was a Problem sending the command to program” and then the file opens.

    This problem occurs in Windows 7 with UAC ON only.

    Let me know if you have experienced the similar problem.

    By the way, I am using the methods

    EnableShellOpen();

    RegisterShellFileTypes(FALSE);

    VC++ User

  • Steve

    For the excel option, unchecking the DDE box does fix this symptom, but causes a catastrophe of an issue, now I cannot open multiple excel instances. IE, no comparative side-by-side excel. This is not a fix, this is a break.