Icons for the Word Document files are shown as blank Icons instead of Word Document Icons for .doc or .docx files

Problem Description:

We have an issue with SharePoint  Document Library where the Icons for the Word Document files are shown as blank Icons instead of Word Document Icons for .doc or .docx files. And when we click on New to create a document the following error occurs “New Document Requires Windows SharePoint Services- Compatable application and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater. To add a document library, click the Upload Document button."

Error Message:

New Document Requires Windows SharePoint Services- Compatable application and Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater. To add a document library, click the Upload Document button

Issue probing/ trying to find out the cause behind it:

1)   Tried changing the hosts file on my computer to point to only one of the two Web Front ends and bypassed F5 Load Balancer.

2)   Does the issue happen to all client computers or only to some ?

3)   Where excatly the images are stored?- The image of the word documents are defined in Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server

4)   extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML\DOCICON.XML

5)   By default, the images file for word document are icdoc.gif and icdocx.gif under the folder of Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server

6)   extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML \images

7)   Word Client: If the word client is not started when you click the word document, it is very possibly caused by the invalid file mapping on the client. Please check on those computers, user can click open a word document file on local disk.

8)   What kind of authentication is used by the sharepoint web application where we are facing the problem? NTLM\Kerberos!

9)   Are there any changes happened on the server recently?

Troublshooting/Debugging/Investigation Done:

·         Tried recycling the app-pool, if no changes then try to reset IIS (IISRESET)

·         Downloaded Process Monitor from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

·         Uncompressed the downloaded file to the server. Inside the package there is a Procmon.exe. It can be run directly, no need to install.

·         Log on to SharePoint server as administrator.

·         Run IISRESET

·         Click to open the procmon.exe, and click OK to start the monitoring.

·         Open a browser and click to open the word document.

·         On the procmon.exe, click the highlighted button to stop the trace. Then click menu “File>Save to file” to save the captured trace.

Solution/Resolution:

If we recycle the web application pool or restart IIS, we can force the web application to reload the file and then the problem can be fixed.

if you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues. Thank you.

Applies to:

SharePoint Server 2007/MOSS2007/SP007