Excel 2016 broken after update

Question

We have reports from several users running Excel 2016 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Excel does not start at all, only the splash screen is shown and stays forever.

Mostly on Win11.

I had a similar problem on Win 10 in Excel 2016 now.

Excel reported things like "Sorry, we couldn't find :\ExcelTools\MyTools.xll Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?" while the refered file was ok at the correct location. But note the wrong path reported by Excel, starting with ":"

I managed to solve this by uninstalling the "Security update for Microsoft Excel 2016 (KB5002653) 32-bit Edition" and now Excel works fine

But in Windows 11 these updates can not be uninstalled?

How can I remove them?

They are making our PCs unusable for many users, this is a critical situation.

***Moved From Windows / Windows 11 / Windows update***

Answer 1

Here is the patch to fix this issue.

November 19, 2024, update for Excel 2016 (KB4484305) - Microsoft Support

Choose 32 or 64 bit.

This does fix it.

Shame it took so long. I was struggling with this issue on a large network fortunately only a small number of workstations affected.
Was informed by a colleague in another department.

Microsoft were not proactive about spreading the word, all the forums and help site were the same no fix.

Cheers.

Answer 2

It sounds great, but in fact it works only partially. I have managed to 'repair' 2 PCs running Win11 and Excel 2016. However, on several other PCs it did not help at all. I suspect that there is still something else in the update(s) that kills Excel 2016. As I mentioned above, there are 2 different scenarios showing the error:

1. Excel complains it can't find an XLL and shows a clearly wrong path starting with 'NO LETTER':\dddddd. These cases seem to be repaired by the recommended update
2. Excel shows only the splashscreen and does nothing else, it simply hangs. In such case the use of the update did not help at all. What's even worse, even doing a total Excel uninstall/reinstall does not help in some cases - this is absolutely critical.

Any advice would be very welcome, I'm running out of ideas - except for setting up even more LibreOffice installations.

This is unbelievable

Answer 3

Per the description of the “fix”, it looks like it fixes the issue with Excel not being able to find a previously installed add-in.

“This update fixes an issue in which Excel add-ins that were enabled the last time that you used Excel might not load correctly when you open Excel”

Answer 4

Looks like they released a fix on Nov 19, 2024 that actually fixed this issue.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/description-of-the-security-update-for-excel-2016-november-12-2024-kb5002653-189190cb-3ae5-47ac-b85a-ca9815cff793

"After you install this update, Excel add-ins that were enabled the last time that you used Excel might not load correctly when you open Excel.

This issue is fixed in the November 19, 2024, update for Excel 2016 (KB4484305)."

Answer 5

Well, you are right. The worst thing is I can not uninstall it from Win11 permanently. I had to reinstall Office 2016 on many PCs, some of them more than once as the problem somehow reappears after few days.

Please, Microsoft, make a new update correcting this mess!! This is a nightmare