Issue:
Sometimes when opening Word documents from SharePoint you see message: my.docx is locked for editing by 'another user'.
Or with PowerPoint or Excel you see similar message, but instead of the users name, like "John Smith", you see their network ID, like "I:0#w|mydom\smithj"
You would like to accurately see the users name in the message so they can more easily be contacted to release the lock on the document.
This issue will only happen when IE tries to open a real hyperlink to the document, most SharePoint document opens happen via JavaScript code or a protocol handler. But SharePoint search preview "Edit" link will open document like a direct URL, which can cause this issue. For example, if you paste a document URL into IE address bar and hit enter you may encounter this issue: Like:
http://sp2013ocsi/WRBI/ForceCheckoutLib/Test2-Ben.docx
Workarounds:
If you have Office Web Apps configured, you can first open in the web app, then pick to edit in the rich client from there. This will by pass the issue.
Or you can modify these registry keys, they will change how the Office application is started and bypass this issue. The screen below will be showed instead:
**You assume all risks for modifying the registry, invalid changes to the registry could cause your computer to stop working
These registry changes can work around the issue:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Word.Document.12\shell\OpenAsReadOnly\command
Remove the /h from the default value, you would end up with something like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\WINWORD.EXE" /n "%1"
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\OpenAsReadOnly\command
Remove the /h from the default value, you would end up with something like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /dde
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PowerPoint.Slide.12\shell\OpenAsReadOnly\command
Remove the /h from the default value, you would end up with something like this:
C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~4\Office14\POWERPNT.EXE "%1"