Today, I was prompted by Libre Office to download an update. I clicked on the link which led me to the Libre Office website, from where I downloaded a 201MB file named LibO_3.5.5_Win_x86_install_multi.man . However when I double click on it, I get the dreaded “Windows can’t open this file” message. What to do now?
Using Win 7 64
Strangely, previous updates did not have that hiccup.
Did you check the integrity of the downloaded file using the MD5 checksum or other checksums? Did you try to open it with Administrator privileges?
if possible, tell us the mirror you downloaded from. It is using a wrong mimetype that causes your browser to rename the file. The URL is not download.documentfoundation.org/… since that will just pick a mirror for you. Please check your download history for the actual mirror, so we can notify it.
The Libreoffice packages for Windows are in a MSI-format these days. Your LibO_3.5.5_Win_x86_install_multi.man might have been accidentally renamed to .man extension during save; try to rename the package to LibO_3.5.5_Win_x86_install_multi.msi (which is the name used in the download site).
See also → Bug 53241 - The extension is .man instead of .msi in the downloadable files for Windows — Comment #5: … It is a problem with Internet Explorer …
@Spring_Chicken: using a checksum, you can verify the integrity of the file you’ve downloaded. See the Wikipedia page on on checksums.
To check it, you need two things:
The checksums for all the LO downloads are available on the “Info” page of every download. Take care to get the checksum for the specific file you’ve downloaded - OS, LO version, Language, Program or Help pack.
To calculate the checksum for the file you’ve downloaded, there’s a lot of freeware software around - check the mentioned Wikipedia article for links.
If you encounter problems installing a program, make sure to:
Run downloaded file” or something like that directly from the browser’s download dialogue, installation may fail if the browser saves the download read-only. So, you should choose “Save locally” or “Save on local disk” in your browser’s download dialogue to save the download, and then open the download directory with Windows Explorer and run the file from there.The Libreoffice 4.1 download is always saved as a .man and it could be due to a bug in IE (IE is a crap browser)
I renamed the file extension to .msi and it worked just fine!
I just tested it on Firefox and it works absolutely fine. The file shows and downloads as a .msi.
Morale of the story is that Open source software rules big time!
The morale of the story is that administrators of LibreOffice download page should test multiple browsers to see if download works fine… 
I would appreciate any help!
Sorry tohuwawohu ; I had not seen your comment, due to the obscure interface of this forum. I don’t know what is a checksum and I never used it. I deleted my download and downloaded it again… but I have the same message.
Finally, 9 days after, I downloaded the update again, and this time, the install went ahead normally. Thanks for help.
It would be a good idea to change this forum to a less obscure interface.