Excel 2010 does not show all open windows in taskbar

Question

We're having a frequent issue with opening multiple Excel documents, intermittently (10+ times a day for some users) Excel will only display one open document in the task bar, when there are multiple documents open. In order to switch between the documents you need to use alt-tab or View>Switch Windows in Excel. I've verified the Excel > Advanced > Show all windows in the taskbar option is checked, and we've also tried setting the taskbar to never combine labels. I'm able to replicate it on multiple production Windows 8.1 Pro PCs, and a test Windows 8.1 VM which has nothing but Office 2010 installed.

*Edit*

Just to clarify we only see this issue on Windows 8.1 clients running Office 2010. We've tested it with 2010 on Windows 7 and do not see the issue with Windows 7.

After searching I found a few threads over 2 years old with people reporting the same issue, and it seems like there is still no resolution.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/officeversion_other-excel/excel-icons-for-open-windows-dont-show-on-taskbar/12720d40-0f4f-4e07-abb2-307512fd72bb

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-customize/windows-81-not-showing-actual-open-files-at/4b5d51f0-a4b3-47f3-98f8-1de4001e4fd6

Answer 1

Hi ,

May be  you can use the following to solve your issue. ( as detailed in Print Screen ) , For any query , kindly revert .

Answer 2

That wouldn't function as much of a workaround, I think alt-tab'ing is easier than tiling/splitting the windows particularly when dealing with wide worksheets. Alt-tab'ing isn't a working fix either, we need to be able to see the open workbooks in the taskbar which is the expected behavior.

I know this is inherently solved in Office 2013 because they changed the UI giving every open workbook it's own window (presumably so people with multiple monitors can easily view multiple workbooks) but I can't simply upgrade all of my users to Office 2013 because of this, especially with the 2016 release being so close.

Answer 3

Hi ,

Perhaps I have got solution to your problem ,  right click on the task bar & do as stated in Print Screen below , please provide feedback to me , if the solution given by me is fine or not for you. Thanks in advance for your response. In the Task bar Buttons ( use +Never Combine Instead of Combine when task is full Or any other option ).

Answer 4

I've tested with both the default "Always Combine" and changing the setting to "Never Combine" and we have the problem with both settings.

Answer 5

Hi ,

I am not able to understand why it is not coming in your case since I am also using excel 2010 , please find my computer print screen where I am able to see all the workbooks with their names ( at the bottom) .I am using the potion never combine..may be there is some other problem which we are not able to track.