In this article, we will be guiding you your way through this issue. We have mentioned the list of potential reasons with viable solutions you could attempt on your own, so keep reading!
What is “There was a problem sending the command to the program” in Excel?
How to Fix “There was a problem sending the command to the program”?
The solutions vary depending on the nature of the cause you’ve dealt with, so we suggest you go through the list of causes we’ve mentioned before moving on to the solutions. The solutions can range from enabling the Dynamic Data Exchange between Excel and other programs to disabling hardware acceleration, according to your issue. For all the issues discussed above, refer to the solutions most relevant to you in this section.
Enable Dynamic Data Exchange(DDE)
While configuring the Excel options, you could’ve disabled the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) option. File explorer sends a DDE message to Excel requesting to open the Excel file. When this option is enabled, Excel will ignore File Explorer’s message to open the file and hence, trigger this message. You can easily solve this issue by revisiting the Excel Options on your Excel program. Refer to the following steps to enable the DDE option:
Restore Default File Association
An incompatible file association could also be the culprit behind the “There was a problem sending the command to the program” issue. You will need to reset the file association to default and then try to open your Excel file again. Refer to the following steps to restore the default file association of your Excel file:
Disable Add-ins
Although add-ins are purely for convenience’s sake, certain third-party add-ins can cause conflict between the Excel program and its files. You can disable the add-ins you suspect are creating this issue from the Excel Options in the program itself. Refer to the following steps to disable the add-ins from MS Excel: Repeat these steps for all add-ins to locate the Add-In that is causing this issue.
Repair Office Program
There could be an issue with your Office program that is causing you this issue. The issue is concerned with missing or corrupted program files. You can easily resolve this issue by repairing your Office program from Command Prompt. If you wish to repair your Office application, follow these steps:
Turn Off Hardware Acceleration
You could have turned on hardware acceleration that could be causing issues with Excel running your command. Hardware acceleration normally assists users in running graphic-intensive tasks. However, if your graphics card driver runs into a problem, Excel can run into a similar issue. Follow these steps to disable hardware acceleration in Excel:
Update System
An outdated system can be the culprit behind the “There was a problem sending the command to the program” in MS Excel. When you do not update your system, it will have issues in its normal functioning. You can update your system from the settings application in Windows. Refer to the following steps to update your operating system:
