Connect to office disabled in SharePoint 2010

Connect to office is a very vital feature if you are working with lots of libraries and lists. One of our users reported an issue that he is not able to use the ‘connect to office’ drop down menu.

Desktop entities:-

Windows 7 OS

IE 9 32-bit

Office 2010 32-bit

SharePoint Server 2010

Problem description was not clear so further probing, we came to know this option is disable/greyed out. Strange! No ideas as I have never used this functionality before the issue actually reported to my team.

I started my research by learning the default functionality:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/sharepoint-foundation-help/connect-to-office-HA102080653.aspx

Issue description:-

Connect to office disabled / Connect to office disabled is greyed out

Error message:-

Connect to office, this control is disabled.

Note:-

Before you start troubleshooting on this issue, make sure that you have enough set of permission to perform this activity.

Troubleshooting done:-

1)   Cross-checked the office version is 32-bit or not. It should be 32 bit only and not a 64-bit.

2)   Cross-checked the IE version is 32-bit or not. It should be 32 bit only and not a 64-bit.

3)   Tried opening the SharePoint site in Mozilla Firefox as well as Google chrome but same results i.e. option is disabled.

4)   Repaired the office version but that didn’t resulted any success.

5)   Tried enabled-disabling add-ons in internet explorer but no success

6)   Tried adding the SharePoint site in trusted location by means of IE but still no results.

7)   Checked on different desktops who were using IE 7, 32-bit as well as Office 2013, 32 bit but no results

Resolution:-

After the exhaustive troubleshooting for hours then I got the following article and I wanted to convey my Million Thanks to Mr. Brian for sharing this valuable information with all of us: http://mywinsysadm.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/sharepoint-connect-to-office-for-new-document-creation

As per this article- MySites must be configured with the Use Personal Features permission turned on.  You can enable this by going into the Central Administration Console, click on Manage Service Applications, click the link for the User Profile Service Application, and select Manage User Permissions.

That’s it. I got the direction, followed as per the mentioned instructions and the issue has been comes to an end. Happy SharePoint!

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.