A link to a webpage doesn't work from inside Excel, but works fine from a browser

Datatalk / Excel.

Symptoms: funny error messages, such as 'Cannot locate the Internet server or proxy server'.

Cause: Excel (office) doesn't simply launch a browser, but does a test first. That test may fail (for example lack of login cookies) and return the wrong error message.

Steps

1. Create a registry key 

• 32 bit Office on 64 bit Windows

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Internet

• 32 bit Office on 32 bit Windows

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Internet

• 64 bit Office on 64 bit Windows

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common\Internet

2. Create a new DWORD value ForceShellExecute with value 1

3. This may affect opening other documents from within Excel as well. Use at your own risk.

4. I tested the above with Office 2019 32 bits on a Windows 10 64 bits install.

Source

The solution above I found here:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/troubleshoot/office-suite-issues/cannot-locate-server-when-click-hyperlink