Unable to open EXCEL.EXE

Question

I have Windows 10 and Office 365, which includes Excel 2016. An installed, non-Microsoft tool requires linking with the Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint executables, in order to send output from the tool to Excel and Powerpoint. I have located the EXCEL.EXE file in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Office.Desktop.Excel_<…>\Office16, but double-clicking it does not open Excel. (I can still open Excel by clicking its icon from the start button.) Any guidance would be appreciated on either of the following:

A) If there is another version of the Excel executable, where do I find it? OR

B) Alternatively, if the one I have found is the correct one, then how do I open it directly?

Thank you.

[Moved from Microsoft 365 and Office/Excel/Windows 10/Microsoft 365 Apps or Office 365 Business]

Answer 1

Sorry that the images did not come through, Tina. Here is another attempt. My Windows is also 64-bit. Thanks.

Answer 2

Hi Phaedrus,

Thanks for posting back and sharing the details.

As you are using Office Professional Plus 2016 and this forum category is mainly focused on Office products comes from Microsoft 365 business subscriptions such as Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise/Microsoft 365 Apps for business. Therefor, to make sure you get the dedicated assistance, we will help you move this thread to the proper category where the engineers will continue helping you troubleshoot the issue.

Many thanks for your patience and effort so far. Your understanding is highly appreciated.

Best Regards,

Tina

Answer 3

We are having the same problem with Office 2019 Microsoft Store Version.

First key is that Office 2019 is the Microsoft Store version.

Excel and all other Office apps worked well (were accessible to other non-office Apps via a shell or through the WinKey+R Appname) before an update.

All other "normal" installs of Office (2019 or 2016 C2R or MSI) do not have this problem. Only the Microsoft Store Version is showing the problem.

We have not yet found the solution but a possible key is this error message:

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item"

The path specified is "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Office.Desktop.Excel_16051.139.29.20386.0_x86_8wek..."

Try a simple WinKey+R and type in "Excel" (without quotes) and I suspect you will see a similar error message. Proof that the Excel App has become semi-lost to the OS.

Again, this all worked without issue until a recent update (End of July "C&D" update for us).

All previous responses were related to a normal C2R or MSI install of the Office suite. The Microsoft Store version install is very different.

Answer 4

We are having the exact same issue as described above by deuxbitz with a user having Office 2019 (MS Store) installation. All other users with the C2R or MSI installation of Office 2016 or Office 2019 are able to predictably automate Excel.exe, but not the MS Store based installation. Our guess is that this started to become a problem around the July or Aug MS Office Update releases. When can we expect an acknowledgment of this problem? When can we expect a fix for it?