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How do I put a shortcut on the desktop for a specific Excel File?

Anonymous
2018-03-17T04:17:12+00:00

I have tried the basic advice which is everywhere....typically as follows:

  1. Browse to the document or file for which you want to create a desktop shortcut.
  2. Right-click the name of the document, and then click Send To > Desktop (Create shortcut). A shortcut for that document or file appears on your desktop.

However, when I do this, and click on the shortcut, it opens on a blank Excel page, where I then have to double click "FILE", and then click on the 'Recent Workbooks' file that I want.

I would like to have the file open immediately, not have to go through this process.

Using Win 10 Pro, all latest updates: Office 2013 Home and Student.

Would appreciate some help please.  Aussie Greg

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Vijay A. Verma 104.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-03-19T06:38:20+00:00

    Great! I am glad that worked! If you don't have any more questions, feel free to choose a rating and have a great day!

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  1. Charles Kenyon 166.7K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-03-18T01:28:22+00:00

    Just to be sure that you are getting a valid shortcut, you could go to your file in Windows and Right-Click and Copy.

    Then you could go to your desktop and right click.

    Choose Paste shortcut.

    I think that will give the same shortcut you got the first time, in which case the previous recommendations are likely needed.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-03-19T06:19:34+00:00

    Finally!....got time together to go through this process.

    I did 2 things.

    1. Moved the file out of a folder it was in, in 'My Documents', still did not work, so....
    2. Ran 'Repair'.

    'Repair', worked!

    So thanks again to both of you for taking the time to help me.

    Regards AG

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2018-03-18T21:34:28+00:00

    Many thanks to Charles Kenyon and E for Excel for your replies....greatly appreciated.

    I have not been able to implement your recommendations yet, but will do so in the next few days and will post another reply afterwards.

    Regards AG.

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  4. Vijay A. Verma 104.8K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-03-17T04:22:11+00:00

    The process which you are following is the right one.

    You can try following one by one as check after every step whether it resolves the issue-

    1. Please don't try this if you are not having product key for Office as of late, Office 2013 has been asking to be reactivated after repair.

    Try repairing your office installation. First try Quick Repair (takes 5 - 10 mins) , if that doesn't help then try Online Repair (Takes more than 30 mins but less than 1 hour in general)

    https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Repair...

    1. Please look into C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel (replace user name with your user name, you can directly reach here by copy and pasting following without quotes in Explorer address bar - "%appdata%\Microsoft\Excel") and see if is contains few files / folders. Move those files to some other location (i.e create a backup of those files / folders and delete all files / folders from here). Hence, make Excel folder blank.

    Now open Excel and see if the problem disappears or not.

    Note - If the above path is not applicable for your installation, you need to find XLSTART path. Excel folder contains XLSTART folder in itself (In case, your XLSTART path is not in Appdata)

    Open Excel > ALT+F11 > If Immediate Window is not visible, type CTRL+G. Same can be also be accessed through View > Immediate Window > Type "? application.StartupPath" without quotes and press enter > You will have your path below.

    1. Sometimes, add-ins can cause problems. To determine, if add-in is a problem start your application in safe mode and see if problem has gone away.

    To start in Safe Mode -

    Hold CTRL key and click on application icon and don't release the CTRL key till it asks you for Safe mode confirmation.

    If yes, then start application normally and disable add-ins one by one and start application again every time you disable an add-in to determine the culprit add-in.

    To disable add-in > File > Options > Add-ins > Down below you have Manage: Com Add-in : Press Go > Untick the Add-ins to disable and tick to enable them

    1. Try to login through another Windows profile. If there is some corruption in profile which is causing this problem, this would correct.

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