Share via

Excel icons for open windows don't show on taskbar

Anonymous
2010-09-06T16:25:29+00:00

From time to time, my taskbar does not show any Excel icons even though I have several workbooks open in Excel. I can use Alt-Tab to navigate to the application, and then the icons appear on the taskbar. This problem appeared with the Excel 2007 - Vista combination (Vista Ultimate, although I doubt the version matters). It appears to be related to how Excel workbooks are opened. I have several workbooks that I open with an Excel workspace. If I do that and subsequently open addtional Excel workbooks and then close them, the problem appears, and the workbooks opened through the workspace no longer appear on the taskbar unless one of them is the active window. I can find nothing on Microsoft support about this problem, but did find one other posting on the Web that sounded identical to my issue.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Stefan Blom 342.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2010-09-07T18:57:01+00:00

trippap wrote:

From time to time, my taskbar does not show any Excel icons even though I have several workbooks open in Excel. I can use Alt-Tab to navigate to the application, and then the icons appear on the taskbar. This problem appeared with the Excel 2007 - Vista combination (Vista Ultimate, although I doubt the version matters). It appears to be related to how Excel workbooks are opened. I have several workbooks that I open with an Excel workspace. If I do that and subsequently open addtional Excel workbooks and then close them, the problem appears, and the workbooks opened through the workspace no longer appear on the taskbar unless one of them is the active window. I can find nothing on Microsoft support about this problem, but did find one other posting on the Web that sounded identical to my issue.

Perhaps the Windows option to group similar taskbar buttons together may be relevant here? See this article:

Group similar buttons on the taskbar

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Group-similar-buttons-on-the-taskbar

Was this answer helpful?

3 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

22 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-07T05:48:34+00:00

    Try these steps and check.

    1.    Open Excel.

    2.    Click on the office button>click on options.

    3.    Click on the advanced tab.

    4.     Select display options.

    5.    Check the box show all windows in the task bar.

    Sachin Shetty

    Was this answer helpful?

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-15T19:28:12+00:00

    I'm running Windows 10 and using Excel 2010.  Have the same problem as discussed here: Open 1st workbook (located on cloud), used "recent" and opened a 2nd workbook (located on cloud).

    Result: I only see the 2nd workbook in the Task-bar.  Even though, the 1st workbook is still open, it automatically goes into reduced form yet it does not appear on Task-bar.  

    Fix:  Open 1st workbook (either directly from location or using Excel-Recent).  Right-click Task-Bar Excel icon and choose recent file in this list.  I see both workbooks in Excel icon.  I also opened a 3rd workbook that was located on an external drive and could see all three workbooks in the Task-Bar.

    This issue has been a major pain for about a year as I work with many workbooks at the same time.  Using different instances of Excel has always been a band-aid solution because you can't copy/paste formulas, etc.

    I hope this helps.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-02-20T10:05:06+00:00

    I am also having the same intermittent problem with Excel 2010 and Windows 8 Pro 64bit. The taskbar often shows only one open workbook when multiple workbooks are open. I am forced to use Alt-Tab or View > Switch Windows to get to the other open worksheets. A search of the Internet shows no solutions. Surely someone at Microsoft can offer advice?

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2013-01-13T16:28:24+00:00

    Try these steps and check.

    1.    Open Excel.

    2.    Click on the office button>click on options.

    3.    Click on the advanced tab.

    4.     Select display options.

    5.    Check the box show all windows in the task bar.

    Sachin Shetty

    I currently have this problem using Excel 2010 with Windows 8.  The problem is intermittent and exceedingly frustrating.  For example, if I Alt+Tab to my browser and copy some text, when I try to Alt+Tab back to Excel, it brings up the wrong workbook.  It also only shows one workbook in the taskbar no matter what I do, including your suggestion above.  If I open the workbooks in multiple instances of Excel, they show up as expected, but then copying and pasting between workbooks doesn't work.

    Sometimes things work perfectly, and other times it's completely messed up.  Come on, Microsoft, we pay you good money to make things work consistently.

    UPDATE: I upgraded to Office 2013 and this issue doesn't exist, FYI.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments