There are times when you may want to configure permissions for Excel in the DCOM configuration tool. This is a fairly straightforward process if you follow http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms678426(VS.85).aspx - "Setting Process-Wide Security Using DCOMCNFG". But you may run into a problem where "Microsoft Excel Application" doesn't appear in DCOM. Additionally, you may receive the following error when working in your application:

Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {00024500-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} failed due to the following error: 80070005

To view whether "Microsoft Excel Application" does appear in the DCOM list, you need to open the DCOM configuration tool in Windows. It's important to note that if you install 32-bit Microsoft Office on a 64-bit machine, you may need to use the 32-bit DCOM config manager to view the programs, depending on your operating system.

"On x64 operating systems from Windows XP to Windows Server 2008, the 64-bit version of DCOMCNFG.EXE does not correctly configure 32-bit DCOM applications for remote activation. This behavior causes components that are meant to be activated remotely instead being activated locally. This behavior does not occur in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and higher versions." - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms678426(v=vs.85).aspx

To correctly configure 32-bit DCOM applications for remote activation, follow these steps:

From a command line, enter the following:

C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64>mmc comexp.msc /32

You should be able to see "Microsoft Excel Application" in the list. However, if the entry is still missing after taking this step, or when on Windows 7 or Windows 2008 Server R2, try the following to resolve:

Restart the Machine 

After an install of Office 2007 or 2010 a reboot of the operating system may be necessary for the appropriate reg keys to be added. A restart of the machine is the quickest and easiest way to resolve this problem, though if the problem remains, you may need to take further steps.

Re-Register the Excel Application

From a command prompt, navigate to where the Excel.exe is located and re-register the application. On a 64-bit machine, this is located (by default) under C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14 for Office 2010 and C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12 for Office 2007.

1.       Open a command prompt – START, RUN, type CMD.EXE but don’t hit ENTER just yet
2.       Find CMD.EXE in the ‘All Programs” list. Right click it and left click on “Run as administrator”
3.       This should open a command prompt. Now, type the following:

CD\

And hit ENTER

CD C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14

And hit ENTER

EXCEL.EXE –REGSERVER

And hit ENTER

* Note, for Microsoft Word the CMD would be:   WINWORD.EXE –REGSERVER

Modify Access and Activate Permissions

1.     In DCOMCNFG, right click on the My Computer and select properties.
2.     Choose the COM Securities tab
3.     In Access Permissions, click "Edit Defaults" and add Network Service to it and give it "Allow local access" permission. Do the same for <Machine_name>\Users.
4.     In launch and Activation Permissions, click "Edit Defaults" and add Network Service to it and give it "Local launch" and "Local Activation" permission. Do the same for <Machine_name>\Users
5.     In DCOMCNFG where you see your list of applications, click Action > Refresh

Verify that the Reg Key Exists

1. Launch the registry editor (START, RUN, type REGEDIT and hit ENTER)
2. Navigate to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\{00020812-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

3. If this key does not exist, "Microsoft Excel Application" will not show up under DCOMCNFG. You will need to import this key from a working machine. Alternatively, you can check the permissions on the AppID key to make sure that the proper permissions exist for entries to be made to this registry key. Right click the AppID key and left click Permissions. The permissions groups listed SHOULD be inheriting permissions from the HKCR key. Remember, if the checks in the boxes are grayed and cannot be checked or unchecked, this means they are inheriting permissions from their parent. A black check mark means this key is not inheriting permissions from the parent and can be set here. Under the "group or security names" window you should see the following:

CREATOR OWNER - with "special permissions" checked
SYSTEM - with "Full Control" and "Read" checked
Administrators ([Machine Name]\Administrators) - with "Full Control" and "Read" checked
Users ([Machine Name]\Users) - with "Read" checked

If the permissions on AppID are not correct, add the correct permissions to the key and try a repair of office and then restart the machine.

* Note that the APPID for Word is different. Look for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00020906-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

Normally copy/paste operations in Excel are pretty instantaneous. You copy data from one place and then paste into a cell in Excel. Pretty straightforward. But what do you do if you notice that copy/paste seems to take an excesseively long time when doing a paste in Excel? There are several things you can look for to resolve a situation like this.

 1. If you are copying from a web page and pasting straight HTML into Excel there can sometimes be a delay during the paste operation. It depends on how much data you are pasting. the cause of the slowness is the formatting of the data itself. One thing you can do is paste the data into a notepad document , then copy and paste the data into Excel. This will strip out formatting and paste raw ASCII into Excel. Excel will then make a determination on the format of the data based on what gets pasted. You can also choose to Paste Special > Values into Excel which just pastes in the value of the data and none of the formatting.

2. Excessive amounts of custom styles can also cause the copy/paste to be slow. If you click on the Home tab in the Ribbon and look under Styles you will see a drop-down (see below pic) that when clicked will display all of your styles. Custom styles show up at the top and can be removed by right clicking the style and left clicking Delete.

3. Memory over-allocation is another cause of slow copy/paste. To check this, in your workbook hit the END button on your keyboard and then the HOME button. If your cursor drops down past the millionth row or to the last column this is an indication of memory over-allocation. To work around this problem you would need to remove all blank and unused rows and columns. After removal, click File > Save to save the changes to the workbook. This is necessary for the new memory allocation to take effect.

4. Finally, a large number of shapes, conditional formatting and pivot tables can also result in slow copy/paste behavior. If you have a large number of autoshapes or shapes in the workbook you can try removing a portion of these to see if the copy/paste time improves. A large number of conditional formatting can also cause slow copy/paste behavior. To check, click the 'Conditional Formatting' drop down under the Styles section of the Home tab and then click Manage Rules. This will open the Conditional Formatting rules manager. You can try deleting unused rules or removing a number of rules to test making the workbook more responsive. Lastly, a large number of pivot tables can cause copy/paste slowness. To work around that problem you can try moving a portion of your pivot tables to separate sheets or even other workbooks.

For some users, Form Controls (FM20.dll) are no longer working as expected after installing MS14-082 Microsoft Office Security Updates for December 2014. Issues are experienced at times such as when they open files with existing VBA projects using forms controls, try to insert a forms control in to a new worksheet or run third party software that may use these components.

You may receive errors such as:

• "Cannot insert object"
• "Object library invalid or contains references to object definitions that could not be found"
• "The program used to create this object is Forms. That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding. To edit this object, install Forms or ensure that any dialog boxes in Forms are closed."   

* Note In this last error message, the Forms text may also be replaced by the GUID of the control.

Additionally, you may be unable to use or change properties of an ActiveX control on a worksheet or receive an error when trying to refer to an ActiveX control as a member of a worksheet via code. 

STATUS:
Microsoft understands the position our customers are in and we are working to find a solution besides a FixIt that can be deployed to remedy the issue.

Automated Solution:

A FixIt is available in KB 3025036

3025036 "Cannot insert object" error in an ActiveX custom Office solution after you install the MS14-082 security update
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3025036/EN-US

Manual steps:

After updating, the cached control type libraries (extender files) may be out of sync. To resolve this issue, you must delete the cached versions of the control type libraries (extender files) on the client computer. To do this, perform a search on your hard disk for files that have the ".exd" file name extension and delete all the .exd files that you find. These .exd files will be re-created automatically when you use the new controls the next time that you use VBA. These extender files will be under the user's profile and may also be in other locations, such as the following: 

• %appdata%\microsoft\forms
• %temp%\excel8.0
• %temp%\word8.0
• %temp%\PPT11.0
• %temp%\vbe

Notes: 

• Ensure that your file extensions are viewable prior to performing the search.
• Close all Microsoft Office applications prior to deleting the files.
• If the search above does not find any .exd files and the issue persists:

• •  In Windows Explorer, open the %TEMP% folder, search for "MSForms.exd" in all subfolders and delete all instances of that file that are found (including those in the subfolders).
     Do the same for the %APPDATA% folder and subfolders.

Scripting solution:

Because this problem may affect more than one machine, it is also possible to create a scripting solution to delete the EXD files and run the script as part of the logon process using a policy. The script you would need should contain the following lines and would need to be run for each USER as the .exd files are USER specific.

del %temp%\vbe\*.exd

del %temp%\excel8.0\*.exd

del %appdata%\microsoft\forms\*.exd

del %appdata%\microsoft\local\*.exd

del %temp%\word8.0\*.exd

del %temp%\PPT11.0\*.exd

Additional step:

If the steps above do not resolve your issue, another step that can be tested (see warning below):

1. On a fully updated machine and after removing the .exd files, open the file in Excel with edit permissions.

2. Open Visual Basic for Applications > modify the project by adding a comment or edit of some kind to any code module  > Debug > Compile VBAProject.

3. Save and reopen the file. Test for resolution.

If resolved, provide this updated project to additional users.

Warning: If this step resolves your issue, be aware that after deploying this updated project to the other users, these users will also need to have the updates applied on their systems and .exd files removed as well.

If this does not resolve your issue, it may be a different issue and further troubleshooting may be necessary. Please open a support ticket to report the issue.

References with further information:  

3025036 "Cannot insert object" error in an ActiveX custom Office solution after you install the MS14-082 security update
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3025036/EN-US

3017349 MS14-082: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office could allow remote code execution: December 9, 2014
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3017349/EN-US

2726958 MS14-082: Description of the security update for Microsoft Office 2013: December 9, 2014
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2726958/EN-US

2553154 MS14-082: Description of the security update for Microsoft Office 2010: December 9, 2014
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553154/EN-US

2596927 MS14-082: Description of the security update for the 2007 Microsoft Office suite: December 9, 2014
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2596927/EN-US

Additional Notes:

• If you are using a system with multiple versions of Office installed, all versions will need to be updated at the same time or other problems may exist.
• If you are creating new workbooks using the new controls on an updated machine, these workbooks then require all clients to have this update installed or they will error when the book is shared.
  
  

Another behavior has been reported concerning the default naming of a control. A '2' is getting concatenated in the name causing for example, the Command Button to create the first control as CommandButton21 rather than CommandButton1.  

This issue is also being reviewed.

Office File Validation, or OFV, was a new security feature (an add-in) released in Office 2010 and is installed as part of MS11-021, released in April 2011. It was back ported to Office 2007 and 2003. KB Article 2501584 states, "Office File Validation verifies that a particular binary file complies with the application’s expectations. Office File Validation can help prevent unknown binary file format attacks against Microsoft Office 97-2003 file formats. " (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2501584).

However we have seen situations where, after applying MS11-021, opening Office files is significantly slower from a network location. KB Article 2570623 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623) was written for this purpose. The problem typically only affects Excel 2003, however it can affect Excel 2007 and 2010 if you have ever set the 'DisableRobustifiedUNC' registry key. If you're using Excel 2003 and are seeing an increase in time taken to open Excel files from a network location, like 40 seconds to 5 minutes, then you will want to check out KB article 2570623 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2570623). If you are on Office 2007 or 2010 and see an increase in time to open Excel files across the network and you can confirm that MS11-021 was recently installed, then check for the following registry key:

For Excel 2007

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Excel\Options

For Excel 2010

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Excel\Options

Look for a DWORD value labeled DisableRobustifiedUNC set to a value of 1. If this is set on your machine, it's recommended you delete this value or set the DWORD value to 0.

We have had reports of the Microsoft Excel 2013 PowerPivot or PowerView add-ins not loading in the ribbon.

When users then try to add the add-ins (File > Options > Add-ins) by browsing to the .dll’s in the COM dialog, they are not added as expected.

This problem can occur when using tools for migration, such as AppSense, and all personalization settings are not captured.

RESOLUTION:

Follow the steps in the article below to allow Excel to rebuild the registry keys that are necessary for these add-ins.

2805999 COM add-ins are not displayed in the COM Add-Ins dialog box in Excel 2013 
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2805999/EN-US