Windows 2012R2 RDS - Outlook 2013 preview handler not working

Hello,

We have an Windows 2012R2 RDS environment with Outlook 2013 installed. Currently we are experiencing some issues with the preview handler for non-administrator users. With an Administrator account it is working without issues.

All users that open WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT or other office applications see the following error:
This file cannot be previewed because of an error with the following previewer:
Word/Excel/Powerpoint
To open this file in its own program, double-click it.

Other programs like Windows Media Player (voicemail messages), Image viewer, Notepad are working.

Any idea what we can do to make this work?

Thanks.

Max

January 15th, 2015 11:22am

Here the same issue however in our situation it also does not work as administrator.
We get the message: this file cannot be previewed because it requires a password

However when i double click on it it works.

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January 15th, 2015 12:07pm

Hi Max,

So you are not able to preview any Microsoft Office files in Outlook 2013 while using a remote desktop protocol, right?

When you click an attachment in Outlook client, Outlook calls the Office Preview Handler which will then call Office applications and tell them to preview the file. You've mentioned that this only happens to non-administrator users (works well for an Administrator account), this leads me to suspect that it might be an permission issue.

I would suggest we first check whether non-administrator users have the right permission to access to the Office15 directory, or the specific executable .exe files (Excel.exe/WinWord.exe/POWERPNT.EXE):

Default location should be - C:\Program Files (x86) or Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

January 16th, 2015 8:15am

Hi Ethan,

When non-administrators double click the attachment it opens the attachment in the required program. So from this i understand that all users have the right permission to access the files. Is this where i'm wrong?

Thanks,

Max

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January 16th, 2015 10:09am

Hi,

Thank you for sharing the information that non-admin users can actually open the attachments via double clicking. In this case, I think permission is not the issue here.

I've noticed that this is a Windows 2012 R2 environment. Sometimes, when you're using Outlook 2013 on a Windows Server 2012-based computer, if Windows Firewall service is not running, you'll have this specific error.

The Previewer feature in Outlook uses the Protected View feature, in Windows Server 2012, the Protected View feature has been improved in conjunction with the AppContainer feature which provides stronger process isolation, and also blocks network access from the Protected View.

I'd suggest we have a check on this and see whether Windows Firewall service is running or not for non-admin users. If not, please start this service, then try again:

Press Win + R and type "services.msc" in the blank box, then press Enter. In the Services window, right-click Windows Firewall, and then click Start.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

January 19th, 2015 8:54am

Hi Ethan,

I noticed that the firewall was disabled for domain networks. I enabled it and did some testing but the issue still persists.

The preview handler in Explorer is working though. So when i browse to an document on my desktop with explorer, i can see the preview inside the explorer window.

Anything else I can check?

Kind regards,

Max


  • Edited by Max El Tuesday, January 20, 2015 10:26 AM
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January 20th, 2015 1:05pm

Hi Ethan,

I noticed that the firewall was disabled for domain networks. I enabled it and did some testing but the issue still persists.

The preview handler in Explorer is working though. So when i browse to an document on my desktop with explorer, i can see the preview inside the explorer window.

Anything else I can check?

Kind regards,

Max


  • Edited by Max El Tuesday, January 20, 2015 10:26 AM
January 20th, 2015 1:05pm

Hi Max,

Thank you for your post.

This is a quick note to let you know that we are performing research on this issue.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

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January 21st, 2015 10:32am

Hi Ethan,

Anything I can do to help you on this issue? Maybe you need logs or something?

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Max

January 21st, 2015 9:58pm

Hi Max,

Thanks for your information.

After doing some research, this behavior might be related a DCOM permission. I suggest checking this point:

1. Go to Component Services and Open it.

2. Expand Component Services, click on Computers, then right click on My Computer and go to properties".

3. Click on Default Properties tab, and make sure the following is set:

Default Authentication Level: Connect
Default Impersonation Level: Identify

 
If its a permission issue, we can use process monitor to get the logs.

[Process Monitor Report]
=================
Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity.
 
To collect the process monitor, please refer to the following steps.
 
a) On the machine which we will reproduce the issue, download Process Monitor from the following link:
        http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx
 
b) Extract the ZIP file, start Outlook in safe mode, stop all other applications and operation in Outlook, then run Processmon.exe
 
c) While Process Monitor is running, click the microscope icon in the toolbar to stop the capture (CTRL+E) and clear the initial logs (CTRL+X).
 
d) In Outlook, reproduce the issue by click the Copy to my Calendar, then start the capture (CTRL+E).
 
e) Save (File -> Save ) the Process Monitor log and upload the log file (Logfile.PML) to me.

You can send the log file to this email account: ibsofc@microsoft.com and inform us here (the email subject should be the link of this thread).
 
Please collect logs for an administer and a non-admin user.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

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January 23rd, 2015 7:34am

Hi Max,

Just checking in to see if the information was helpful. Please let us know if you would like further assistance.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

January 26th, 2015 5:02am

Hi Ethan,

I followed your steps and the DCOM settings were OK so i executed ProcMon and send you the logs.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Kind regards,

Max

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January 26th, 2015 6:48pm

Hi Max,

Thank you for your information.

From the logs, the issue seems to be related to the access permission of C:\Windows\Fonts folder. So I suggest we adjust the permission and let everyone can access this folder.

Meanwhile, I found there is an anti-virus feature on this server. There are similar permission error messages. I suggest we temporarily disable the anti-virus as a test.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any findings.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

January 28th, 2015 5:15am

Hi Ethan,

I have done as you requested. I gave the users modify rights on the Fonts folder for testing and disabled our antivirus but that did not solve our issue.

Do you have other idea's i can try?

Thanks.

Max

PS. I noticed in your last screenshot that it includes our client name and an internal user. Can you please clear the server.domain.local field and remove the usersnames from the screenshot?

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January 28th, 2015 12:01pm

Hi Max,

I have updated the screenshot above, sorry for this.

We will perform research on this issue as soon as possible, and will get back to you once we have any updates.

Thanks for your understanding.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

January 28th, 2015 12:18pm

Hi Ethan,

No worries! Thanks for adjusting the images.

Please let me know if you need more logs or other information.

Kind regards,

Max




  • Edited by Max El Thursday, January 29, 2015 1:24 PM
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January 29th, 2015 4:22pm

Hi Ethan,

No worries! Thanks for adjusting the images.

Please let me know if you need more logs or other information.

Kind regards,

Max




  • Edited by Max El Thursday, January 29, 2015 1:24 PM
January 29th, 2015 4:22pm

Hi Max,

We would like to collect more information for further troubleshooting:

  1. The previous process monitor log was generated from a native admin, it would be great if you can collect the logs for both an administrator and a non-admin user.
  2. Collect SDP report for Outlook settings

From a computer that is connected to the Internet:

Please note that you can submit diagnostics results back to Microsoft 5 time(s) until: 2015-02-13.

For frequently asked questions about diagnostic data collection and uploading tools click the link below:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598970

Also, in order to know more information of your environment, please help to collect the OFFCAT log on the problematic client side:

Reference: http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2812744

You can send any log files that you'd like to share with us to this email account: ibsofc@microsoft.com.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 30th, 2015 11:15am

Hi Max,

How is it going? Please let us know if you would like further assistance.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

February 2nd, 2015 12:41am

Hi Ethan,

I did a little research myself and noticed when i disable the roaming profiles and redirected folders for the test user. And work with local profiles then the preview handler is working for non admin users.

This issue seems to be related to the group policies and i think the redirected folders/roaming profile policy.

Are you guys familiar with this?

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Max Elzinga


  • Edited by Max El 22 hours 47 minutes ago typo
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February 5th, 2015 8:05am

Hi Ethan,

I did a little research myself and noticed when i disable the roaming profiles and redirected folders for the test user. And work with local profiles then the preview handler is working for non admin users.

This issue seems to be related to the group policies and i think the redirected folders/roaming profile policy.

Are you guys familiar with this?

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Max Elzinga


  • Edited by Max El Thursday, February 05, 2015 1:04 PM typo
February 5th, 2015 4:04pm

Hi Ethan,

I solved the mistery of the failing preview handler. There was an GPO that moved the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Local AppData to the roaming profile on the server.

After moving the location back to the default setting our problem was solved.

Thanks for your help.

Kind regards,

Max

  • Marked as answer by Max El 1 hour 39 minutes ago
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February 6th, 2015 5:13am

Cool!

Good to see your problem has been resolved, and thanks for sharing the solution here.

It will be very beneficial for other community members who have similar questions.

Regards,

Ethan Hua

Forum Support

February 6th, 2015 5:47am

Hi Ethan,

I solved the mistery of the failing preview handler. There was an GPO that moved the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Local AppData to the roaming profile on the server.

After moving the location back to the default setting our problem was solved.

Thanks for your help.

Kind regards,

Max

  • Marked as answer by Max El Friday, February 06, 2015 10:12 AM
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February 6th, 2015 1:12pm

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