Why does Access report it can't receive a command to its program?

"Had this issue but only with specific office products (i.e. Excel and Word would work but Access would fail with the message).

Here is how I fixed the issue in Windows 7 - 64 Bit (Possibly would work for Vista as well).

NOTE: This solution involves editing your system registry. Please be careful as incorrectly editing the registry could corrupt your operating system!

Using Registry Editor provided with Windows 7 (Regedit)

Check the extension key in the registry for the current association
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mdb (I was dealing with Office 2007 but just locate the file extension entry you are interested in).
Check the (Default) value entry, then find the key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT it refers to (in my case this is Access.MDBFile).
Locate the sub key shell and delete it (see warning above)
Go back to and locate a file you wish to open, you will now be asked to choose a program to open it with. At this point locate the office program you wish to use to open the file and your done.

Checking my settings after doing this, noticed that the Access.MDBFile key in the registry had changed, it now had a CLSID key that pointed to the new home of the file association.

The sub key CLSID (in my case HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Access.MDBFile\CLSID, (Default) value was {73A4C9C1-D68D-11D0-98BF-00A0C90DC8D9}).
Used find to search for the CLSID (excluding curly brackets), remember to check under Look at -> Keys before performing the search (in my case found key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{73A4C9C1-D68D-11D0-98BF-00A0C90DC8D9} but this could differ, my example is for 64 bit system handling a 32 bit version of Office 2007).
This reference is to the ""Microsoft Office Access Application"" that uses an In-process server to launch the application, using this method fixed my Access file associations."

"Here is the solution I found for Access 2002. It will be similar for other versions of Access.

Open Access
Click on Tools
Click on Options
Click on the Advanced Tab
Uncheck the box next to ""Ignore DDE requests""
Close Access

It worked for me! No more ""There was a problem sending the command to the program."" error.

For the different versions of Access, the ""Ignore DDE requests"" option may be stated a little differently, but you should be able to find something comperable.

I hope this helps other who have the same problem."

"Here is the fix for Access 2007:

Click the Office ""Coin"" in top left corner of Access.
Select ""Access Options""
Select the ""Advanced"" option
Scroll to the botton and uncheck the ""Ignore DDE Requests""

Should open fine without having to mess about with the registry."

"Has anyone ever seen anything like
this?

probably, since the error is documented in this MSKB article. it also has been mentioned in connection with ZoneAlarm."

"Log of activities:

I used Control Panel to change the Office 2007 installation, removing Access. Then using Control Panel, I added Access back. This had no effect on the problem.

I used Control Panel to repair the Office 2007 installation, then rebooted. This had no effect on the problem.

NOTE:

When I double click on the file, the problem occurs. When I right click, choose OpenWith and select Access, the problem does not occur.
This problem does not occur with Excel"