Why are cookies unrecognized when a link is clicked from an external source (i.e. Excel, Word, etc…)

Question

I noticed that when a link is clicked externally from the web browser, such as from Excel or Word, that my session cookie is initially unrecognized, even if the link opens u

Answer 1

Here is a solution for C# ASP.NET based on spilliton's answer above. In Global.asax.cs, add the following:

    private static string MSUserAgentsRegex = @"[^\w](Word|Excel|PowerPoint|ms-office)([^\w]|\z)";
    protected void Application_OnPostAuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(Request.UserAgent, MSUserAgentsRegex))
        {
            Response.Write("");
            Response.End();
        }
    }