Hyperlinks won't open in MS Office 2016

[jeffk]

Windows 10 Pro (x64)
Intel i7 CPU 2.70GHz
32.0 GB RAM

A few weeks ago I bought, downloaded, & installed “Microsoft Office Standard 2016 Genuine License Keys for Windows- 1 PC” to put on a new laptop. It seemed to install properly.

I’ve just discovered that I can’t open links from word, excel, etc. When I try to I get an error message telling me that “Your organisation’s policies are preventing us from completing this action for you. For more info, please contact your help desk” (attached screenshot 1)

Although I didn’t actually think it was this I’ve checked “Options > advanced > “use CTRL + Click to follow hyperlink” in word (attached screenshot 2) & it doesn’t work whether that box is checked or not.

Does anyone know what’s going on here? I’m not in an organisation, I’m an individual using this at home. It’s something to do with the whole application (office 2016) itself, not the individual applications.

Any thoughts on what the problem is here & how I can resolve it would be much appreciated.

TIA

[jeffk]

I can't see an 'Edit' button so I'll add this as a reply to my own post:


I use Firefox as my default browser, but I get the same message if I change my default to Opera, IE, or Edge.

What I have found is that if I open *.doc or *.docx files in WordPad then the hyperlinks work - they open the linked web pages. One difference between WordPad & Word that I'm aware of is that WordPad comes bundled with the OS, whereas Word (& Excel, etc) are part of the Office 2016 suite. To me, this confirms that whatever the problem is, it's in Office, not W10 or my browser.

I guess that I need to change a setting somewhere, or maybe edit something in the registry, but I don't know where, what, or how.........

Surely someone here must know about this stuff...I'm sure it's pretty straightforward...please help!

[jeffk]

I'm very disappointed with the complete lack of response here, maybe I’ll find another site next time I have an IT problem

[BC_Programmer]

When I tried to find info on this previously all I found was this and while there's a lot of "solutions" provided supposedly none of them worked, so I didn't see the value in linking it. Also, that is Outlook 365 not 2016, so I decided it wasn't relevant enough to post.

Allegedly, this can have something to do with having the default browser set incorrectly, though it's not really clear why that would be the case. Unless you altered your install to remove IE components I suppose.

I also found this kind of spammy-looking article that seems like it was autogenerated but which somehow has what could be useful information with regards to resetting default browser settings.

[jeffk]

@BC_Programmer

Thanks for your offered help, I actually resolvedthe problem earlier today with the info here https://www.slipstick.com/problems/this-operation-has-been-cancelled-due-to-restrictions/#google_vignette, though I'm not sure why it wasn't working in the first place.

Anyway, it's working now! :-)

[jeffk]

& now it's stopped working again! I've tried applying the solution that I used before ( https://www.slipstick.com/problems/this-operation-has-been-cancelled-due-to-restrictions/#google_vignette) but it hasn't worked this time 

Any help with finding a permanent solution would be very much appreciated!!

TIA

[Allan]

1. In Settings - Apps - Default Apps - Make sure Firefox is selected as your default browser

2. At the bottom of the same page click on "Choose Default Apps By Type" - scroll down to both .htm and .html and make certain Firefox is set as the default app for both file types

Click on OK or Save and exit. If that doesn't fix the problem, I'm at a loss.

[jeffk]

Id already tried that, but thanks anyway 

[Allan]

Okay, you know what - one other thing to check. Settings - Accounts - make sure there are no accounts other than what you want. It's a long shot, but no harm in checking.

[jeffk]

Just the one a/c
'Admin - Local Account Administrator'

[jeffk]

I gave up on solving this - I don't have the knowledge/skills myself & nobody on this, or other forums seemed to have any solutions either. In the end I uninstalled Office 2016 & installed Office 2019. The company I bought from then refunded me the cost of office 2016.

2019 seems to be working fine, so I'm satisfied with that, though a bit frustrated at not being able to sort it - I have another W10 laptop that has office 2013 working on it just fine, so the company's assertion that it was because 2016 is too old just doesn't hold water. I guess this'll just have to be one of those IT mysteries...