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About 2 weeks ago, I noticed that my Windows application shortcut icons were showing the default, “no type associated” icons for all of the Office-related documents. I could double-click one of these (such as a .pptx or .xls file) and it would open in the correct application, so the shortcut itself was working.. but the icons were the generic Windows icon:

I found a very detailed page describing various ways to try to fix the issue, and I tried all of them. None of these worked.

What did work, however, was completely quirky and inexplicable. I had to replace a directory under C:\Windows\Installer called:

{90120000-0012-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}

Here’s how I stumbled upon this. I tried to change the default icon for Excel files by doing the following:

1. I opened an Explorer window (explorer.exe)
2. I clicked on Tools -> Folder Options -> File Types
3. I scrolled down to XLS in the list and clicked on “Advanced”. I saw the following dialog:
4. I clicked on “Change Icon”, and the following error message came up:

So the icon shortcuts were missing, because this weird directory was missing (probably some disk-cleaning tool I ran purged that directory to regain some space).

I found that directory on one of my other Windows laptops, copied it over, and now the Office document shortcut icons are working again.

Your users probably have a few favorite keyboard shortcuts for formatting text — like Ctrl + B for applying boldface, Ctrl + I for applying italics, Ctrl + U for underlining, and maybe Ctrl + L to left-align text. But Word provides buttons for those tasks on the Formatting toolbar, so any efficiency gains are kind of a toss-up.

The real convenience lies in knowing some more obscure keyboard shortcuts — ones that have no default button equivalents and that can save users from having to scrounge around dialog boxes looking for the appropriate options. Here are some shortcuts that are especially good for users to have under their belt.

Microsoft Excel is one of the primary applications that you use (probably mainly for tracking lists of things). As with most applications, most of us only use a fraction of the functionality. We can apply the 80/20 rule here where 80 percent use only a fraction and 20 percent might be considered “power users.” And probably within the 80 percent, we use the inverse of the 80/20 rule and use only 20 percent of the application’s functionality and features.
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