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Excel leaving 'ghost' screen when moving between monitors

Anonymous
2017-10-06T15:43:14+00:00

Lately I've found when I move Excel from one monitor to another it leaves a 'ghost' screen up - by that it's a blank white screen with the Excel logo, blank tool bars and a grey open area. I can minimize it but if I close it then my whole excel program closes.

This is fairly new - last couple months maybe, but really starting to be a pain - anyone have any ideas what's going on?

Windows 7 Pro, Office 365 Business

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2017-10-10T13:44:09+00:00

I found my issue - the blank template file was corrupted - deleted everything in my user/appdata/local/temp folder and let the system regenerate a new blank template file for my user.

Working okay now :)

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-10-10T06:40:59+00:00

    Hi Tanya,

    Did you try performing online repair as mentioned in my initial reply? Also, have you tried the suggestion from the above article? From the article, please do try the following steps:

    Ignore DDE

    1. In Excel, click File>Option>Advanced
    2. Clear the Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) check box, and then click OK.

    Disable Hardware acceleration

    1. Start any Office application.
    2. On the File tab, click Options.
    3. In the Options dialog box, click Advanced.
    4. In the list of available options, select the Disable hardware graphics acceleration check box.
    5. Click OK.

    Turn Off add-ins

    1. In the Excel, click File > Options > Add-Ins.
    2. At the bottom of the dialog box, change the Manage dropdown to COM add-ins, and select Go.
    3. Clear the checkbox for any enabled COM add-ins. select OK

    Restart Excel by double-clicking the icon or file name for the workbook that you are trying to open.

    Thanks,

    Neha

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-10-09T14:09:10+00:00

    This only happens with Excel, but sometimes it on the same monitor, sometimes it's when I move the file between monitors

    Yes, clicking the Excel icon to open new workbook works fine, clicking on an excel file in Windows Explorer to open works fine.

    Happens in multiple workbooks, I'm having a hard time reproducing the situation. It does tend to happen later in the day, after I've been working for awhile.

    [PII removed by the moderator]

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-10-07T04:02:37+00:00

    Hi Tanya,

    Try performing an Online Repair of Office by following the steps in Repair an Office application.

    If the issue persists, please try the suggestion from this article.

    If the above suggestions didn’t resolve the issue, please provide the following information:

    1. Provide the screenshot of Office 2016 Product Information. To get this screenshot, open Excel 2016 on your system, click File>Account, capture the screenshot of all the information mentioned under Product Information.
    2. Does this only happen when you move the Excel workbook between the monitors?
    3. When you double click the Excel icon to open a new Workbook, will it open properly?
    4. Please check if this is happening with a specific workbook or all the workbooks gives the same result.

    Thanks,

    Neha

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