Excel Template Not Being Recognized on Startup

Question

I am running Excel from an Office 365 subscription in Windows!

I created a new Theme which I want as the default Theme in all new Excel Workbooks.

I saved the Theme in C:\Users<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes as can be seen here:

The Theme is being picked up and used in new Excel Workbooks as can be seen here:

I selected the Theme and then saved the otherwise empty workbook as Book.xtlx in the C:\Users<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART folder which is the default User StartUp location specified in Excel > Options > Trust > Trust Center Settings > Trusted Locations as can be seen here:

When I double click on the Book.xltx file Excel opens a workbook with the custom Theme as the default / "in use" theme! Good!

When I open / start Excel, Excel opens a workbook that i) does not have the custom Them as the default / "in use" theme but ii) does include / show the custom Theme! It is a though the custom template s not being recognized by Excel. Not Good!

I then decide to move / try the template as a personal template only to discover that the template is being recognized as a template (i.e., it is appearing in the File > New >Personal template section) but it is appearing with a "documents" icon rather than a "workbook" icon as can be seen below. Is this part of the problem.

THE ASK: Please help me fix this so that new Theme the default Theme in all new Excel Workbooks.

Thank you.

Joel

Answer 1

Hi Joel,

Thanks for posting in the community and sharing the detailed information. We are happy to help you.

According to your description, your steps are correct and I can reproduce the same situation when clicking "Blank workbook" in the New tab. In this case, I suggest you try one of the following workarounds. See if the custom theme is applied by default.

Workaround 1:

Change the Excel settings.

Go to Files> Account> General> under Start up options, uncheck the "Show the Start screen when this application starts" option.

After that, please restart Excel and check again. Excel should automatically create a new workbook with the custom theme applied.

![Image](https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/ca3529a9-2499-44df-a796-d3e2e73d6ace?platform=QnA

Answer 2

George,

As a start, much thanks for taking the time to assist me , especially on Christmas Day!

I am happy to share that both workarounds worked (although not happy to say I spent three hours working on this today, what a waste of time)!

I will certainly report the situation to MSFT.

Is it me or does it seem that the should work through the startup screen as I was trying to do, after all it is supposed to be the new default workbook template!

Thank you.

Answer 3

Hi Joel,

Thanks for posting back.

I'm glad to know both workarounds worked for you. At the same time, I understand the inconvenience this causes and apologize for it. Regarding your question, I think it is caused by Excel itself. Unlike Word (which has a default template file Normal.dotm and the user can set the default theme to the template file), Excel does not have such a default template file when creating a new blank workbook, which results the custom theme not being applied by default when clicking on "Blank workbook". In this case, users will need to use one of the above workarounds to force Excel to create new workbooks by the Book.xltx template. Based on the above, I recommend that you send feedback to Microsoft.

Meanwhile, if you feel the workarounds in my previous reply helpful to others in the community who are experiencing similar queries, you can also use the feedback tool below my previous reply to submit your feedback for me. This will make them get informed of the situation quickly.

Hope you having a nice day and wish you a Merry Christmas as well😊.

Sincerely,

George | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 4

Hello,

I have followed the instructions above for workaround 1 (workaround 2 isn't an option, this is an org wide deployment). Here's my steps:

1. created the .intunewin win32 package and successfully delivered and installed
2. the files that I packaged are in the correct places with the correct settings
3. the admx templates we used to disable startup splash has worked for all users, no one is getting the startup splash
4. tested the layout tab and can see the theme file, color theme file and font theme file but the template does not apply at startup
5. double checked and tested that book.xltx is located in the roaming\ms\excel\XLSTART folder and if manually clicked on it opens correctly so it was saved correctly with the theme applied
6. I have tested on a personal non-domain machine to check and see if there was any issue with any domain settings being applied, manually applied the settings and placed the files myself in the right spots after testing them
7. the files show in the right places just like my test users do, but my excel does not open by default with the theme loaded - we have to manually select it to load it

Hoping there's an obvious gotcha here that I missed, but I've combed the process several times now and can't find anything that would prevent this, including checking in the startup folder being in trusted locations

Answer 5

So... ANSWERED MY OWN QUESTION. Posting for everyone else that tries this: there is this thing that happens when you download files, there's that hidden metadata flag that marks it as downloaded from another computer so therefore blocked until you unblock in properties.

Guess what gets set when you deploy a package by intunewin win32 apps and push files... that flag.

If you uncheck the flag and hit OK, guess what happens? The template loads, choirs sing and everyone dances with joy!!!

So the moral of the story, when you write your deployment powershell to move all the files, don't forget to remove that flag in your script.