Cannot Start Excel 2007 - message "Microsoft Office Excel has stopped working..."

Question

Original Title: Cannot Start Excel 2007

For the past week or so, I have been unable to open Excel 2007 running on a Windows Vista 64-bit OS.  When I try to open a file (or open Excel directly), I get the "Microsoft Office Excel has stopped working..." message and it crashes.  I have tried opening directly from Excel.exe and that has not worked.  I followed the Knowledge Base thread 919196 and was able to open Excel with /s (safe mode), but was not able to find any issues in the subsequent "Additional Troubleshooting" offered by the article.  I can open other Office software.  The article suggested removing the following file: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\Excel.exe" which I did to no avail.  It suggested the same thing for the file found in "C:\Documents and Settings*username*\Application Data\microsoft\Excel\XLSTART" but that folder is empty.  When I create a new Windows profile, Excel starts just fine, but I really do not want to spend the day transferring profiles.

Answer 1

Serach for excel.xlb, *.qat and *.pip. Try searching and renaming this files. Check if excel works.

If still it doesn't work than, go for contorl panel> programs> programs & features> highlight office 2007> change> click on drop down of excel and make it NOT AVAILABLE.

Open registry: start> run >regedit> ok

Take back and then delete the EXCEL FOLDERS

Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office

Start> control panel> programs> programs & features> highlight office 2007> change> click on drop down of excel and make it AVAILABLE.

Answer 2

Step1:Check searching the complete computer for XLSTART and than delete the contents.

Step2: Check in Clean Boot.

Restart the computer in Clean Boot and try to save the file, if it works fine, then the issue may be due to the Antivirus.

Follow the article to boot the computer in clean boot.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Step3: Follow the steps and check if that helps:

1.Go to the location C:\Program File\Microsoft Office\Office 12\excel.exe

(if you are using a 64bit machine, then you would have to go to C:\Program files x86\Microsoft Office\Office 12\Excel.exe)

2.Right click on Excel.exe and click on Properties and then click on Compatibility tab. Check if you have any check mark in any of the compatibility mode options. Make sure you also click on the option "change settings for all users" tab at the bottom of the same screen and look for similar check boxes in the window.

3.Uncheck the option Run as Administrator option is you have it checked.

4.If you see any check boxes in the compatibility mode options, uncheck all the boxes and click on Apply and OK.

5.Try to open Excel now and check

Answer 3

 You say "take back and delete" and I'm not sure what "take back" means.

Take back up means , export the registry.

 For more information on backing up follow the link below:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Back-up-the-registry

Answer 4

I was unable to find any files named excel.xlb or excel.qat.  I did find 2 named excel.pip.  I renamed those but Excel did not work after Office reconfigured.

I have made Excel unavailable, but before I mess with the registry (which always makes me nervous), I want to make sure I understand what you're suggesting.  When I navigate to those 3 folder locations you listed, I should delete any folder (and all of its subfolders and contents) with the name "Excel"?  You say "take back and delete" and I'm not sure what "take back" means.

Incidentally, there are no folders named "Excel" under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office, but there are for the other 2.

Answer 5

When I search for and find the XLSTART, it is already empty (even when I do so in the new profile I created, in which Excel opens fine).  I have all of the system and hidden files set on visible, so I'm not sure why it's empty.  I find the folder at the following location: "C:\Documents and Settings*username*\Application Data\microsoft\Excel\XLSTART"

I restarted the system in the clean boot, but Excel still didn't start, so it does not appear to be any of my background processes.

I also followed your last set of steps, but none of the boxes in the Compatibility tab were checked, so there was nothing to change.

Anything else I can try?