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Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro posted: Oct 28, 2009 3:19 PM

Click to view mattsmithvm's profile Lurker
mattsmithvm
2 posts since
Oct 28, 2009

OK, So newly installed Fusion 3 + WIndows 7 Pro with Office 2007.

All my files are stored on the Mac, and I've got VMware shared folders on your mac switched on for the folder... All used to work fine in Windows XP + Fusion 2.

But now, PowerPoint has a critical error when opening a file through the shared folder, but the same file opens fine if it's say in the actual Windows area. Checked my XP VM - and it's doing it there too!

Is this a bug with Fusion 3 - any help guys?

Thanks,

Matt

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

1. Oct 28, 2009 8:46 PM in response to: mattsmithvm
Click to view steve goddard's profile Hot Shot
steve goddard
171 posts since
Jan 26, 2007
Hi There,

I am one of the developers of the shared folders file system.

I will try and replicate the issue you have run into. We have extensively been using Office 2007 and have not seen the issue.
So I am wondering if we missed something or your environment contains something different.

Can you state what the critical error is exactly? Dialog box and message?
Do you have any anti-virus products installed in the XP VM?
What is the file you are saying you have an issue with when using Powerpoint? Do you have the same issue with Word 2007, Excel 2007?
Or any other Office applications?

What is the location you are using to store the powerpoint file? (I.e. Do you know the file path that is being used in the XP VM? Such as
\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\My Documents\foo.ppt
Or are you saving the file through a mapped drive e.g. z:\My Documents\foo.ppt

Do you have mirrored folders enabled? If so which?
What other shared folders have you mapped and are using too?

Windows 7 RTM right or is it an RC candidate? (Not that it should make much difference, but thought I would ask.)

Thanks.
Steve

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

2. Oct 29, 2009 9:25 AM in response to: steve goddard
Click to view mattsmithvm's profile Lurker
mattsmithvm
2 posts since
Oct 28, 2009

Hi There,

I am one of the developers of the shared folders file system.

I will try and replicate the issue you have run into. We have extensively been using Office 2007 and have not seen the issue.
So I am wondering if we missed something or your environment contains something different.

Can you state what the critical error is exactly? Dialog box and message?

Screen shot 2009-10-29 at 16.19.40.png

scroll down further:

Screen shot 2009-10-29 at 16.19.51.png
Do you have any anti-virus products installed in the XP VM?

On both XP and Win 7 Professional (x64) this is the bundled McAfee with VM Fusion 3


What is the file you are saying you have an issue with when using Powerpoint? Do you have the same issue with Word 2007, Excel 2007?
Or any other Office applications?

Yes - same thing - in all Office aps - not a problem with Adobe Reader, and also looks to crash Windows Explorer now and again (experienced this in just Win 7)

What is the location you are using to store the powerpoint file? (I.e. Do you know the file path that is being used in the XP VM? Such as
\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\My Documents\foo.ppt
Or are you saving the file through a mapped drive e.g. z:\My Documents\foo.ppt
This looks to be the cruz - when opening via the file://
vmware-host... kind of way - looks to open fine.

I do have the shared folders mapped to a drive - and this is the only route they look to crash via


Do you have mirrored folders enabled? If so which?

Yes - both the desktop and the shared folder area in my mac


What other shared folders have you mapped and are using too?
as above - jsut the desktop and a shared area in my documents area on the mac


Windows 7 RTM right or is it an RC candidate? (Not that it should make much difference, but thought I would ask.)
RTM - Win 7 Professional x64

Email me directly if you'd like my telephone number so we can experiment. Thanks - appreciate it!


Thanks.
Steve

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

3. Nov 2, 2009 2:57 PM in response to: steve goddard
Click to view Vasilios's profile Novice
Vasilios
8 posts since
Nov 2, 2009
Hi I'm experiencing the same issue however I'm still using XP Pro SP3.

I can open any MS Office program from within the windows environment, however not from the Shared Docs folder or if I right click a file within the MAC OS environment and choose open with MS Excel VM Crashes.

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

4. Nov 2, 2009 4:09 PM in response to: Vasilios
Click to view steve goddard's profile Hot Shot
steve goddard
171 posts since
Jan 26, 2007
Hi there,

Thanks for reporting the issue, can you give some more specific details, in particular, answers to the following:

Are you using the Fusion 3.0 release or RC version or some other version?

Are you using Office 2007?
Which office application are you getting the crash with Word, Outlook, Excel, Access, Powerpoint? Or all?
You said the VM crashes, do you get an application crash or a system crash (BSOD)?

For example if you open explorer in the XP SP3 VM and navigate to say a mapped drive to your VMware Shared Folder for your documents e.g. Z:\My Documents\foo.doc and double click on this file, a crash occurs?

Do you have any anti-virus software installed in the XP VM?

Thanks.
Steve

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

5. Nov 2, 2009 4:17 PM in response to: steve goddard
Click to view Vasilios's profile Novice
Vasilios
8 posts since
Nov 2, 2009
Hi Steve

I get an application crash where VM and the office application I try to open a file with just hangs. This is specific across all my MS Office 2007 Apps.

If I access the file via explorer shared Y drive all works well. When I access the file via the shared folder in the finder and choose open with MSWord everything just hangs.

My antivirus is AVG from Grisoft.

Bill

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

6. Nov 2, 2009 4:28 PM in response to: Vasilios
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steve goddard
171 posts since
Jan 26, 2007
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the information.

That is interesting about opening the file from Finder (open with MSWord) but it everything works when accessing directly using Explorer.

At what point do you get a hang? Can you upload a screen shot or something similar?
I will try and replicate that here and your environment in case that has some effect.

Thanks.
Steve

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

7. Nov 2, 2009 7:27 PM in response to: steve goddard
Click to view Vasilios's profile Novice
Vasilios
8 posts since
Nov 2, 2009
Hi Steve,

I figured it out, it was an issue with the shared folders. I ended up mapping the drive from the Windows VM to the Mac and it's up and running now.

Thanks for your help

Bill

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

8. Nov 3, 2009 7:42 AM in response to: Vasilios
Click to view steve goddard's profile Hot Shot
steve goddard
171 posts since
Jan 26, 2007
Hi Bill,

Thanks. That is good news.

I had tried it here and it worked fine.

However, if you don't mind telling me the state of your VM when you hit this, it will be useful to know what was missing that caused the failure, as it maybe something we should document for future reference so other users can find out what to do if they hit this.

In VM settings: Sharing enabled? Mirrored Folders selected? Any or no mapped drives from the VM using Shared Folders eg. Z: sounds like no in your case?

Was it just that you had no drives mapped or the default drive for shared folders was deleted?
Or was there some other configuration issue that you had to resolve in the VM settings?

Steve

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

9. Nov 3, 2009 7:59 AM in response to: steve goddard
Click to view PeterO2's profile Novice
PeterO2
17 posts since
Nov 24, 2007

Hi, I'm having a similar issue with MS and other applications (Excel, Word, Adobe Acrobat) crashing when I try to open files on my shared drive. It seems to depend on how the shared folder is mapped. When I map it using the \\vmware-host\Shared Folders\ notation, the files open fine. However, if I map the exact same address to a drive letter (or cut and paste it into a shortcut), I can still navigate to the address using Explorer, but applications will crash when I try to open the file. Its an addressing issue. I can copy the file to my desktop, and it will open fine.

Peter O.

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

10. Nov 3, 2009 8:10 AM in response to: PeterO2
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steve goddard
171 posts since
Jan 26, 2007
Hi Peter,

So you are saying using applications to open files through Z: where (z: is mapped to "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\ notation") but when you use the UNC path directly things are okay?
BTW is that correct that your share is " notation" with a preceding space or a typo?
Also any anti-virus products on your system? Sometimes these affect access when scanning files using drives.

Did you perform an upgrade of the VMware tools?

Is your Windows VM a 64 bit Windows version?
We had an issue where the installer broke upgrade paths (very reproducible on 64 bit Windows platforms) where drive letter access with 32 applications crashed (eg Office.)
If you did try uninstalling the VMware tools from the control panel and rebooting the VM and doing an install of the VMware tools again and reboot the VM.

Thanks.
Steve

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

11. Nov 3, 2009 8:07 AM in response to: steve goddard
Click to view Vasilios's profile Novice
Vasilios
8 posts since
Nov 2, 2009
Hi Steve

Not a problem...VM shared folders were enabled, no mirrored folders selected, Y: Drive from XP VM mapped and MAC connected to Shared Folder within that Y: Drive.

For whatever reason under Shared in the finder I was able to see all the files within the Y: Drive and access them using Pages, Numbers, etc. However when I would choose open-with to use MS Office to open an XLS File or .DOC file the VM XP would freeze and I would see the little round beach ball just turning.

What I did was I created a Shared Folder within the Documents Folder and moved the files within the Y:Drive items to that folder. I also added the Home Folder to the Shared Folders. I'm now able to access all my MS Office files via the finder, and also able to open them accordingly.

Not sure if you can make sense of this but it was tedious trying to get it all to work.

Why won't VM recognize a folder within a mapped drive that's being shared?

Bill

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

12. Nov 3, 2009 8:16 AM in response to: Vasilios
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steve goddard
171 posts since
Jan 26, 2007
Hi Bill,
Great help thanks. One more piece of information before I pass this to the guys who work on the application handling side of this feature:
where did your Y drive map to? I mean, what was the VM Settings Share Name, Folder on your Mac that it was redirected to?
It might help us determine why this was failing and you needed your Documents folder mapped.

Thanks.
Steve

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

13. Nov 3, 2009 8:17 AM in response to: PeterO2
Click to view Vasilios's profile Novice
Vasilios
8 posts since
Nov 2, 2009
Hi Peter

Yeah this issue drove me absolutely nuts yesterday after installing 3.0

You are correct it is definitely a mapping issue. I did the exact same thing you stated below mapped it to the vm-ware-host folder as opposed to the actual drive, and also created a Shared Folder on the MAC side as well as added the Home Folder to the VM Shared folders, now all works well.

I don't understand why in the finder I can connect to the mapped drive, view and access the contents using all the MAC apps, but when I try to access a MS Office app is just hangs.

Bill

Re: Microsoft Office applications crashing when opening Shared files from the Mac - Fusion 3 + Windows 7 Pro

14. Nov 3, 2009 8:30 AM in response to: Vasilios
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steve goddard
171 posts since
Jan 26, 2007
Hi Bill, Peter,

Drive letter access should work but it does take a different path through the Windows system to the file system driver than that of UNC access ie directly using "\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\..." paths.
The drive letter route uses a user mode DLL that we provide and resides in the C:\Windows\System32 directory and is called vmhgfs.dll.
For some upgrades this DLL never got upgraded correctly by our installer, thus drive letter access got broken. An uninstall of the VMware tools, reboot VM, install of the VMware Tools works around this.

You can check this file is there at the location (and for 64 bit Windows VMs you must also have C:\Windows\SYSWOW64\vmhgfs.dll) and they must have the correct version.
You can see the version by using Explorer and highlighting the file and right-click and select properties, then select the Version (Or Details) tab. If you could tell me if the file is there and what the "File Version" numbers are it would help a lot to verify what is going on with drive letter access. It should be 8.0.15.0.

Thanks.
Steve
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