Excel 2003 - Cannot update from linked documents

[numms]

I am putting together something for my company in which sensitive information is being presented to end users. We have reports which are exported out of SQL server into Excel files on a central drive on the network (permissions are not an issue). Each end user will have a file linked to these exported reports which does a vlookup to pull values from these files. The problem that I am running into is that when the user's file is opened, it is prompting to either Update or Do Not Update values. When I click Update, the message "Unable to read file" is displayed. If the individual files are opened first and then the end user's file is opened, all the values are populated with no problem, but as I mentioned, with the sensitive information contained in these files, I cannot allow the end users to be opening these feeder reports. I have run across KB824172 which I think covers the admission of Microsoft that this is a problem with their product, but I've yet to find any information about how/when/if it's getting fixed. Basically, here is our layout...

End User

> Given a file with their name in it and vlookups to feeder files (to pull that agent's stats)

Background

> Feeder files are run through the scheduler in SQL Server Reporting Services and exported to a public drive in a hidden folder.

> Formulas on the End User's workbooks have been hidden to prevent them from finding the path (yes, I know it's still available through the Edit-->Links menu - If anyone knows of a way to hide that, it would be greatly appreciated too).

> End users open their file, and their stats (Sales, Productivity, Commissions, etc) are displayed on the Excel file on their desktop.

** Special Notes about this...

When looking at the links menu, I do have the ability to click Open Source and all linked files will open with no problem at all.

This is not an issue with calculations as everything works fine when the files are opened.

This is not an issue with permissions to the feeder files as there is no problem opening these files from within the template.

This really appears to come down to a function in the program that just doesn't work correctly.

Any thoughts on this would be GREATLY appreicated...

[numms]

For anyone looking for the answer to this issue, here it is...

There is no fix for this. It has to do with a bug in the program with exported Excel documents from a SQL Report Server. The file NEEDS to be opened and saved from within Excel for the values to be able to be looked up. I won't get into my personal feelings on MS for not fixing this, but I wound up having to build in a macro to Open and Save all the files I'm working with. Bit of a pain as there are over 60 reports for this project, but since MS can't seem to fix their software, it's up to us to come up with workarounds.