Excel files not opening after double ckicking

Rich Morrissey 96 Reputation points
2021-07-27T17:02:08.803+00:00

We are seeing something odd in our company now. Most PC's are not opening Excel files when double clicking on them. Excel launches but to a blank form. You can then use File--> open to open the file. this seems to be affecting most (but not all PC's here). Also there are some reports of TextPad having the same issue, leave me wondering if it is not an Office issue, but Windows. All the clients are Windows 10 and Excel 2016. We've gone through articles we can find on the internet including this one. This issue just began in th elast week or so. All PC's are completely patched with the July 2021 patches.

Windows 10
Windows 10
A Microsoft operating system that runs on personal computers and tablets.
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Excel Management
Excel Management
Excel: A family of Microsoft spreadsheet software with tools for analyzing, charting, and communicating data.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
1,756 questions
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  1. Emily Hua-MSFT 27,711 Reputation points
    2021-07-28T08:05:19.363+00:00

    @Rich Morrissey

    Could you please share us what are formats of Excel workbooks opened as blank? Such as .xlsx files or other formats.

    From Office perspective, I would provide following suggestions to have a check.

    • Go to Excel > File > Options > Advanced > Scroll down to General section, check whether "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)" is ticked.
    • Go to Registry Edirtor, locate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command, I would suggest you backup the entry "command" first. (Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.)
      Then please try to add "%1" in "(Default)" data value to check this issue, such as "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE" "%1"
      118499-image.png
    • If the steps above do not work, please perform Repair for Office 2016 from Control Panel.

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  2. Rich Morrissey 96 Reputation points
    2021-07-28T12:06:35.437+00:00

    I've only seen the issue with .xlsx file so far, since that is all we've used for years.

    We have already tried both of those suggestions without any luck.

    Thanks for the suggestions!

    Rich

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  3. Rich Morrissey 96 Reputation points
    2021-07-28T12:08:53.727+00:00

    I just tried with a .csv file and got the same result.


  4. Stephen O'Boyle 0 Reputation points
    2023-02-02T10:16:38.05+00:00

    I had the same issue. I checked the box (meaning, I placed a tick in the box) found at File / Options / Advanced / General / Ignore other applications that use DDE - and this seems to have solved the problem and seems to work with all the usual file types. Momentarily slower in opening than previously but quicker than waiting for the menu to open and then clicking on open to open the file. I didn’t attempt any of the step 2 suggested above as that is all just scary - and it seems to be unnecessary.

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