• One additional step I tried:  

    I'm trying to access an Excel 2010 file from network share using a UNC path.  This query actually works against the network share when I'm logged onto the SQL server (via RDP with my credentials), but fails from SSMS on my machine (both on the same domain).  The SQL Server is 2012 Standard on Windows 2008 R2 (not sure if that matters)  

    SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET('Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0', 'Excel 12.0;Database=\\<Fully qualified server name>\<path to file>\Book1.xlsx','select * from [Sheet1$]')

    When ran from SSMS 2016 on my machine (Windows 10) I get:

    Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
    The OLE DB provider "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0" for linked server "(null)" reported an error. The provider did not give any information about the error.
    Msg 7303, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
    Cannot initialize the data source object of OLE DB provider "Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0" for linked server "(null)".

    I've tried logging in as the AD account that the SQL service uses and confirmed that it can see and read files in the target directory.  I've tried creating a new dummy excel file.  Same problem.  TSQL works when ran on the server, fails when ran locally on my machine from SSMS.