Why does Excel open (almost) minimized?

Question

I have Office 2019. On boot, Outlook opens at the size and position I used it last. Excel opens in a greatly reduced desktop display which I have to expand to usable size.

What must I set to have it open at the usable size?

[Moved from Microsoft 365 and Office / Excel / For business / Windows ]

Answer 1

Good morning, Rick.

Thanks for reaching out to our Microsoft Community Forum. Please accept our warmest regards and sincerest hope that all is well.

We understand that you're Excel application is always opened in a small window when you launch the app instead of opening in a maximized window.

An easy way to reverse this issue is to open Excel, maximize it, and then while holding down the Ctrl key close the Excel by clicking the "X" symbol at the upper right corner of the app. After doing that, the app should always open maximized when launched.

Feel free to reply to this thread if you need further clarification.

Sincerely,

Glenn Rue

Forum Moderator

Microsoft Community

Answer 2

It would seem to be even better than that, Glenn. I normally have Excel open about ¼-screen-size. I had it like that, held CRTL and clicked X. Since then Excel has opened at the size I want it.

Thanks

Answer 3

You're welcome, Rick.

Glad to know that everything is working now. We appreciate your effort in finding a solution to this issue. At Microsoft, we greatly value our customers' initiative and resourcefulness.

To help other customers searching for help on related issues, please feel free to mark the response you found most helpful by clicking “Yes” on the bottom of that post. This will ensure the helpful responses are most visible when searching (and you can vote more than once if the solution was spread over multiple posts).

If you need help with other Microsoft products, feel free to start a new thread here in the community. It's always our goal to help you get the most out of said products. Refer to the link and photo below on how to create a new thread.

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Thanks again for choosing Microsoft! We’re here when you need us.

Respectfully,

Glenn Rue

Answer 4

You have to say that I gave that idea a fair go, Glenn. However, seven months down the track I still have the problem. Excel opens on boot as a 1½"x¼" sliver at the top left of screen. Note that this does not happen with Outlook Calendar which always opens as a part-screen window neatly fitting a month's calendar. My preference would be for Excel to open as a part-screen window showing the section of a spreadsheet I was looking at yesterday.

How do I get Excel to behave itself?

Answer 5

Here's an insight - it's worked OK on boot this morning. Excel has to be open on the desktop before shutdown. Then on boot it opened at normal size.

For comparison, I have Outlook (calendar) opening on boot. It is always off the desktop but in the taskbar. When I click on the taskbar icon in the morning Outlook opens at the usual dimensions. (This is what Excel hasn't been doing.) Get the coders peering in that direction ;}