Have you encountered the error: "iexplore.exe - Application Error : The exception unknown software exception (0xc06d007f) occurred in the application at location 0×7c812a5b" while attempting to open an Office document from SharePoint? I have. Until I found the solution, this was quite annoying to say the least.

Essentially, the issue is conflicting versions of the OWSSUPP.DLL file in your Office 11 and Office 12 installations (respectively Office 2003 and 2007) which provides SharePoint client support. When both Office 11 and 12 are installed on the same computer, and if certain conditions are true, the older (Office 11) OWSSUPP.DLL is used by SharePoint and attempts to utilize functionality that is not available (it really wants to use the functionality in the Office 12 OWSSUPP.DLL) hence the IE crash. If the following are true, in the order in which they are presented you will run into this issue:

• You install a Microsoft Office 2003 product on the computer.
• You install one or more 2007 Office system programs on the computer.
• You repair or update the installation of an Office 2003 product.

So for myself, I had Office 2003 Professional installed on my machine. I installed SharePoint Designer 2007. Over time, updated my Office installation as recommended by Microsoft. That certainly fits the conditions. I have found the error to occur not only when attempting to open a document in a SharePoint document library, but at times simply when attemption to open a document library in the first place. I am happy that this hotfix exists, and I am sure I am not alone.

Visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938888/ for all the details.

Cheers,

C.