Yet another Excel issue popped up this morning. I think it’s actually a Windows 10 thing. I opened a Word document, and there was a pop-up window that wanted something or other. It’s one of those Windows things that you have to click OK to. I also checked ‘Don’t show this to me again’ because I get tired of those things.
I went to open an Excel file. As usual, I double-clicked the shortcut to the file on my desktop. The Excel window opened, but there was no spreadsheet; just grey. I went to where the file resides, and double clicked on the file itself (as opposed to the shortcut). Same result. Finally, I opened Excel (the program, not a file). I clicked File, Open, and Browse. I selected the Excel file I wanted and double-clicked on it. Then it opened.
So the issue is that I have to open files from within Excel, and am unable to open them by double-clicking on the file itself.
I have a somewhat similar problem with LibreOffice Calc occasionally. Except when I double click a spreadsheet file, NOTHING opens up. I go into Task Manager and there are multiple instances of LibreOffice running. I select End Task for each one and it starts working.
I closed the two Excel files I had open, then opened Task Manager. The only things running were Microsoft Edge and Microsoft outlook (32 bit). Then I tried clicking on the desktop shortcut to a file. Again, I got the empty Excel window. I re-opened the file I was working on by going to File and choosing from the recent spreadsheets.
Oh – I should mention that the icon on the taskbar is light green when I try to open a file directly. It’s dark green if I open Excel so that I can open a file from within Excel.
I found this page. I tried the first fix, but the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) was already unchecked. I tried the next fix (‘Reset Excel file associations’), but I need an Administrator password. Solution 3 also says to click Change. I didn’t try it, but I’m sure I’d need an Administrator’s password.
This makes me think that you have two versions of Excel installed, and you have a file association to the wrong one. This can happen during an upgrade if something goes wrong in the upgrade process.
The popup was probably asking something about your default app for opening .xlsx files, and whatever option you chose changed the association to the old version.
I think getting admin access to change the association back is going to be the solution.
The pop-up was some sort of compatibility thing or other, that came up with Word. Excel stopped opening files after that, so I think it’s a Windows thing.
I’ve emailed our Admin, describing the problem and providing the link I posted above, so that she can have our IT contractor look at it. He usually comes in on Fridays when I’m not here. She may have him look at it then, or it may be a simple thing he can do sooner.
I’ll tell you, Microsoft bugs the hell out of me. Like, suddenly I’m not allowed to open an Access database I’ve been using forever. Or I’ll create a text file, and I’m suddenly not allowed to open it (or delete it). Our IT guy looked at it once, and couldn’t figure out why it was doing that. So I just create a new Access database or change my program to write to a different file name.