Excel 2019 ribbon updated to the new Office 365 style Ribbon but other apps didn't

Question

Excel 2019 ribbon updated to the new Office 365 style Ribbon but other apps didn't

Anonymous

My Office 2019 got updated to version 2107 (build 14228.20204). Word, PowerPoint, Publisher and the other apps didn't display any changes in the UI, except Excel. It completely changed to the newer Office 365 UI, the context menus were more spaced and the ribbon was different, now the active tab being highlighted by a bar.
Two weird things:

Even though the UI almost looked like the newer Excel, the icons remained unchanged. They were the same Office 2013 icons.
Only Excel's UI updated and not the other apps.

Are things supposed to be like this? Or am I missing out?

asif siddiqui 6 Reputation points

2021-11-18T08:29:38.35+00:00

I am noticing issue in excel 2019 at top of the ribbon in quick access bar. The green colored portion is way too big and quick access bar seems misaligned, additionally a save button and an excel icon appaired beside quick access bar.
Niefer Sans 11 Reputation points

2021-11-23T06:02:38.827+00:00

You have to edit registry. Go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\ExternalFeatureOverrides\excel
and set:
Microsoft.Office.UXPlatform.FluentSVRefresh
To:
False

Thanks to Maxim_Zinchenko.
asif siddiqui 6 Reputation points

2021-11-23T09:34:23.52+00:00

great and correct information. 100% working. However, no option found to mark this as accepted answer.

Accepted answer

5 additional answers

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asif siddiqui 6 Reputation points

2021-11-18T08:29:38.35+00:00

I am noticing issue in excel 2019 at top of the ribbon in quick access bar. The green colored portion is way too big and quick access bar seems misaligned, additionally a save button and an excel icon appaired beside quick access bar.
Niefer Sans 11 Reputation points

2021-11-23T06:02:38.827+00:00

You have to edit registry. Go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\ExternalFeatureOverrides\excel
and set:
Microsoft.Office.UXPlatform.FluentSVRefresh
To:
False

Thanks to Maxim_Zinchenko.
asif siddiqui 6 Reputation points

2021-11-23T09:34:23.52+00:00

great and correct information. 100% working. However, no option found to mark this as accepted answer.

Answer 1

Graham 76

I also have recently found this problem with version 2110, only Excel affected so far.
The new ribbon style and 'black' scroll bars are awful, so I have followed the suggestion given and reverted to version 2106.

To prevent any future "upgrades" to version 2110 I have changed the the Office update option to "Disable Updates"
However this not only stops feature updates but also blocks SECURITY updates, not a good idea !

Is there a way to allow Security updates only, possibly by Group Policy?
Alternatively is there any other way to stop an upgrade to version 2110?

I am running Windows 10 Pro with Office 2019 Professional Plus.

Regards

Graham 76 Reputation points

2021-11-23T09:36:22.897+00:00

Thanks to the 3 people who responded with the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE........ solution.

However this implies that similar changes are needed for the other Office applications, substituting 'excel' with 'access', 'word', etc in the key.
A total of 9 applications and key changes. Although the other applications have not been 'updated' so far, I assume that this is only a matter of time.

There does not seem to be a universal key that would apply to the whole of Office?

I am right in assuming that once the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ changes are made it would be alright to change the Office update option back to "Enable Updates", so that SECURITY updates can be installed?

Answer 2

Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796

@Anonymous

Which version of Office 2019 do you have? Is it Office 2019 Professional which includes Publisher and could be updated to version 2107 (build 14228.20204)?
Could you please take a screenshot of ribbon of Office apps, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint?

Please make sure that there are not any other Office products installed on this machine.

It's recommended to go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features, find the Office 2019 and right-click it, perform an Online Repair for it.

If Online Repair does not work, I would suggest you use "Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant" to uninstall Office 2019 completely.
Then log your licnesed Microsoft account into www.office.com, install Office 2019 again to have a check.

Any issues, you may post back.

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Anonymous

2021-07-29T08:16:41.06+00:00

Hi @Emily Hua-MSFT ,
I'm running the perpetual retail version of Office 2019 Professional Plus.
Emily Hua-MSFT 27,796 Reputation points

2021-08-02T02:47:28.643+00:00

@Anonymous
Thanks for your sharing.
I use ODT install the retail Office 2019 Professional Plus with Version 2107 (Build 14228.20204), I can reproduce this issue, the UI of Excel ribbon is different with other Office apps.

I would suggest you use following command to revert Office to an earlier version, such as Version 2106 (Build 14131.20332). Thanks for your understanding.
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ClickToRun\officec2rclient.exe" /update user updatetoversion=16.0.14131.20332
If you are using 32-bit version of Office, please remember to replace "Program Files" with "Program Files (x86)".
Then the ribbon would be back as following.
Anonymous

2021-08-02T05:31:38.26+00:00

Thanks a lot! That fixes it. Guess I would just turn off automatic updates until all the Office apps have the newer UI. I hate this kind of inconsistency.
Ezio De Pazzi 126 Reputation points

2021-11-20T03:22:26.58+00:00

Glad to hear that you were fixed this problem. Also, just by the way, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\ExternalFeatureOverrides\excel\Microsoft.Office.UXPlatform.FluentSVRefresh
change this value to "false" also works.
Brian H 1 Reputation point

2021-11-20T13:25:25.23+00:00

Thank you VERY much. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\ExperimentConfigs\ExternalFeatureOverrides\excel\Microsoft.Office.UXPlatform.FluentSVRefresh = "false" worked for me. I was quite displeased this morning when Excel suddenly looked different. I am so happy to have it back as it was. All the best.

Answer 3

HCC 1

Hello.

I have the same problem of HidetoshiDekisugi-9332.

After the upgrade to Build 14228.20204 (both Office 2019 and Office 2016), only MS Excel has the new visual refresh.

Regards.
Alessandro

Answer 4

FunkyB 1

I have the same issue in Office Professional Plus after an update to Excel 2019 build 14326.20238. Since the functionality is not affected, it's not a big enough issue for me to downgrade and lose security updates, but it's visually inconsistent. If they're going to change the style, I wish they would do it for all the apps because it doesn't look good if it's only Excel. At least I know it's not some problem with my system, so I'm going to leave it for now and see what happens.

Answer 5

Marcin K 1

Same here. Waiting patiently till the interface gets unified across Excel, Word and PowerPoint again.

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Excel 2019 ribbon updated to the new Office 365 style Ribbon but other apps didn't

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