Excel.exe is not a valid Win32 Application.

My system:  Vista Business 32bit with SP1, Office 2007 Professional with SP1.

For a while I was running Vista (without SP1) and using Office 2007 with 
SP1.  Rarely any issues.

Sometime after installing Vista SP1, I've been having odd issues with my 
Office installation, Excel especially.  I don't know if it's its SP1 related, 
or if it's just something went wrong with the Office install.

Here's the issue.  I leave my PC on 24/7 and simply lock it when I leave the 
office.  After several days, Excel will just stop working, completely.  When 
I try to launch excel I get the error "Excel.exe is not a valid Win32 
application".

I have tried reapplying SP1.  After reapplying the SP1 and rebooting, 
everything returned to normal.  So I thought.  A week or so later, same 
issue.  It turns out simply rebooting resolves the issue temporarily.

I thought my Excel exe was corrupted (i.e. some file wrote/deleted 
information from the binary file).  I verified modified dates with other 
excel exe's and everything is the same.  Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

I can't find any relevant errors in my event log.  I can't see anything out 
of the ordinary when using SysInternal's process monitor either.  It's like 
something in Vista thinks this EXE is a bad EXE and it won't let it launch 
until I reboot.

I have even noticed after several times of launching the exe, if I browsed 
to the installation directory, the actual icon for Excel was dimmed, as if it 
was like a hidden file or something.  WTH?  When I rebooted, it returned to 
the normal icon.  I have yet to see the icon dim again, even during times of 
issue.

I disabled my antivirus thinking it was the culprit to no avail.

What in the world could be happening?  When I use the process monitor, the 
exe never even gets executed (i.e. no events for excel.exe).

Please help!!!
-Matthew

FYI, right after posting this I went back to trying to launch the excel exe.  
Of course same error.  I copied the exe but with a diff name within the same 
directory.  Same error launching that exe.

There's another excel related exe in the same directory.  It's called 
excelcnv.exe.  I tried launching that.  It too reports invalid win32 
application.

I fired up a search for anything named excel* on my entire C drive.  While 
it's finding a variety of files, I tried to launch excel again.  THIS TIME IT 
WORKED?!?!  WTH!

This makes no sense!

Searching (ok, "Googling") on your error message found two recent posts to a 
Vista group re the same Excel problem and both attributing it to Vista SP1. 
No help but FYI.

-- 
Jim




| FYI, right after posting this I went back to trying to launch the excel 
exe.
| Of course same error.  I copied the exe but with a diff name within the 
same
| directory.  Same error launching that exe.
|
| There's another excel related exe in the same directory.  It's called
| excelcnv.exe.  I tried launching that.  It too reports invalid win32
| application.
|
| I fired up a search for anything named excel* on my entire C drive.  While
| it's finding a variety of files, I tried to launch excel again.  THIS TIME 
IT
| WORKED?!?!  WTH!
|
| This makes no sense!
|


|
| > My system:  Vista Business 32bit with SP1, Office 2007 Professional with 
SP1.
| >
| > For a while I was running Vista (without SP1) and using Office 2007 with
| > SP1.  Rarely any issues.
| >
| > Sometime after installing Vista SP1, I've been having odd issues with my
| > Office installation, Excel especially.  I don't know if it's its SP1 
related,
| > or if it's just something went wrong with the Office install.
| >
| > Here's the issue.  I leave my PC on 24/7 and simply lock it when I leave 
the
| > office.  After several days, Excel will just stop working, completely. 
When
| > I try to launch excel I get the error "Excel.exe is not a valid Win32
| > application".
| >
| > I have tried reapplying SP1.  After reapplying the SP1 and rebooting,
| > everything returned to normal.  So I thought.  A week or so later, same
| > issue.  It turns out simply rebooting resolves the issue temporarily.
| >
| > I thought my Excel exe was corrupted (i.e. some file wrote/deleted
| > information from the binary file).  I verified modified dates with other
| > excel exe's and everything is the same.  Nothing seems out of the 
ordinary.
| >
| > I can't find any relevant errors in my event log.  I can't see anything 
out
| > of the ordinary when using SysInternal's process monitor either.  It's 
like
| > something in Vista thinks this EXE is a bad EXE and it won't let it 
launch
| > until I reboot.
| >
| > I have even noticed after several times of launching the exe, if I 
browsed
| > to the installation directory, the actual icon for Excel was dimmed, as 
if it
| > was like a hidden file or something.  WTH?  When I rebooted, it returned 
to
| > the normal icon.  I have yet to see the icon dim again, even during 
times of
| > issue.
| >
| > I disabled my antivirus thinking it was the culprit to no avail.
| >
| > What in the world could be happening?  When I use the process monitor, 
the
| > exe never even gets executed (i.e. no events for excel.exe).
| >
| > Please help!!!
| > -Matthew 

Matthew, not sure if you've already seen it or not, but MS has a patch out 
that should fix this issue.  I had been having the same problem since 
installing SP1 on my work machine and never bothered looking for the fix (I 
have bigger fish to fry)...  Anyway, here's the link to the patch.

 http://www.**--****.com/ 

You my friend, are the BEST!  I could never find anything on MS's site for 
this.  Their search leaves a lot to be desired.

Anyhow, I will give this a shot (if my automatic updates hadn't already got 
it).  Thank you!

My automatic updates hadn't picked it up.  I've installed it and we'll see 
how it goes.

Ditto.  I see it came out only 3 days ago.  Might take time to hit automatic 
updates, if it does at all.

Thanks again for the info!  Now if I can fix my other SP1 issue (when I lock 
my PC half the time my screen goes black with just a cursor).  Seems like SP1 
is playing hell with my ATI video card drivers and the last I checked, I had 
the latest.  *shrug*.

I'm in the same boat with an nVidia card...  Glad I could help you out

Hi

If you are not getting a solution via the updates, in the short term the 
following fix usually resolves this problem
Windows Explorer>Windows>Prefetch> delete all entries

The Prefetch cache will be rebuilt as you load new applications, and the " 
Excel.exe is not a valid Win32 Application." should disappear.

-- 
Regards
Roger Govier

Thanks for the advice Roger.  So far, the patch seems to have resolved the 
issue for me.  Never crossed my mind to dump the prefetch cache.