Subscribe in a readerFixing Startup problems
This article was used by Microsoft to create a set of automatic fixes (Microsoft FixIt). See:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280504/en-us/en-us
Unfortunately, many Excel users sometimes start experiencing problems with their Excel: File not found errors, compile errors, GPF's, Excel refusing to load, files which do not open, etcetera.
This is a list of things-to-try when Excel exhibits problems.
Content
- Startup problems or odd behaviour
- Opening Files From Desktop Or Explorer Fails
- Problems Caused by Anti Virus Software
- Problems caused by Temporary Files
- Problems Caused by Disabled Files
- Other Resources
Excel shows errors during startup or behaves odd
Try opening Excel without any addins or hidden workbooks
Use the Automation switch to start Excel without loading addins or workbooks from the XLSTART folder:
Click Start, Run,
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Automation
Quotes mandatory, Note you may have to change the path.
If your error disappears, either an add-in or a (hidden) workbook that is loaded upon Excel's start bothers you.
Locate the offending file using the following steps:
Excel Add-ins.
- Tools, Add-ins
- note which are checked
- Uncheck all (but one)
- Restart XL
- If no error, check the next one and repeat from step 4
Got the error? uncheck the one you last checked.
Com Addins
Another type of addins are COM addins. The way to get at these add-ins differs per Excel version.
Excel 2007/2010/2013
- Click the Office button/File tab and select Excel Options.
- Click the Add-ins tab
- In the dropdown near the bottom, select "COM Add-ins" and click Go.
Excel XP to 2003
- Rightclick a commandbar and choose customise
- Click the commands tab
- Find an entry in the tools section called "COM addins"
- Drag to any toolbar or menu
- Close customise dialog and click that menu item
- Uncheck all shown COM addins
If your problem still persist, some COM addins are not shown in the userinterface and can only be unloaded from the registry. Check the registry, at this location:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\AddIns\
Warning: Backup your registry before making ANY changes!!!
Not an add-in? It may be a (hidden) workbook causing trouble then.
Check workbooks that load at startup.
- Find your XLSTART folder (On Windows XP it may be a path like this:
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART - Move all files out of it;
- Open them one by one (in Excel) and find the one with the error;
- Move the others back.
You can also check whether a folder has been set to load at startup and repeat the above for that folder.
Excel 2007/2010/2013:
Office button or File tab, Excel Options, Advanced tab:
Office button/File tab, Excel Options, General tab in Excel 2007/2010/2013
Excel 2003 and older:
Tools, Options, General, "Alternate Startup file location" or "At startup, open all Files in:" (The text depends on your version of Excel).
Tools, Options, General tab in Excel 2003
Open Excel in Safe mode
Start, Run,
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Safe
The safe switch ensures Excel starts without opening any addins or using your menu customisations. If this works, chances are that your toolbar customisation file is corrupt. Locate all files with extension .xlb and rename the extension(s) to something like .old
Now try and start Excel again.
In Windows 7, the xlb file is found by entering this into Explorer's address bar:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Excel
Tip: You can also start Excel in safe mode by holding down the control key whilst you double-click the Excel icon.
Removing Excel's registry entries
Sometimes all actions listed above don't help to resolve the problem. For various users, removing Excel's main registry entry in Windows Registry solved the problem.
Warning: All cautions about tampering with the registry apply!!
As a last resort, remove the entire root folder of Excel from the registry (it should be recreated when you launch Excel). This is the registry key to remove:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel
First find this key and export it to your desktop by right-clicking on the "Excel" entry in the folder tree and selecting Export.
When the export is done, right-click the entry in the tree again and choose Delete:
Now restart Excel and see if that has helped.
Opening Files From Desktop Or Explorer Fails
Reregister Excel with Windows
If you have trouble loading Excel files by double-clicking, the shell registration for Excel may have to be re-written. How to do that depends on your Excel version.
Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013.
In older versions of Excel, the /Regserver switch was used to write the shell registration for Excel. This was true up to Excel 2003, and was removed in Excel 2007. For Excel 2013, 2010 and 2007 you need to run setup/repair (running the Office setup in Repair mode from "Programs and Features", aka "Add/Remove Programs").
Excel 2003 and before
Click Start, Run and enter:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /Regserver
This generally fixes trouble with opening Excel files from the desktop or by (double)clicking them in Explorer.
Ignore other applications
Check in Tools, Options, General tab whether "Ignore other applications" is set. Uncheck it.
Excel 2007/2010/2013
Ignore other apps in Excel 2007/2010/2013
Excel 2003
Ignore other apps in Excel 2003 and older
Trouble caused by antivirus software
NAV has shown to cause "Excel caused an invalid page
fault in module VBE6.DLL".
You might try disabling the Office plug in of NAV.
Trouble caused by corrupt temporary files
Try cleaning your TEMP folder:
In Windows 95/98 and ME
Delete all files in C:\Windows\Temp
In Windows NT/2000/XP
Find and Select C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\local settings\temp
and delete all files in there.
When a workbook contains controls from Excel's control toolbox temporary files are created in that folder. If such a temporary file is somehow corrupted it may prevent the workbook it belongs to from working normally and sometimes even causes Excel to crash.
Select Start, run and type %temp% and hit OK to directly open your temp folder.
Disabled files
As of Excel XP and 2003, files may have been disabled when Excel thought them to be the cause of a crash.
If you have had a problem with opening a file, Excel may have labeled it as suspect.
Excel 2007/2010/2013
Select the Office button (File tab in 2010) and click Excel Options. Click the Add-ins tab and use the dropdown:
Disabled Items in Excel 2007/2010/2013
Excel XP, 2003
In Excel, select Help | About Microsoft Excel.
Click the button near the bottom labeled "Disabled Items..."
Disabled Items in Excel 2007/2010/2013
If the offending file is listed, select it and click Enable. The file you just enabled may of course cause Excel to crash again, click here to find some pointers on how to open corrupt Excel files.Other resources
Do you have one particular file that causes trouble? Check out this page.
Microsoft Fix-it
Microsoft has recently added two pages on this subject, both with so-called "Fix-it" solutions for several elements stated above.
Excel 2003 and older:
How to troubleshoot startup problems in Excel
Excel 2007 and up:
How to troubleshoot Excel 2007 startup problems
Some information on startup switches:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;211481
What other people have to say about this subject:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/StartupErrors.htm
http://www.contextures.com/xlfaqApp.html
Comments
Showing last 8 comments of 284 in total (Show All Comments):Comment by: Azmi Aziz (3/14/2013 9:39:02 AM)I have set options for my new workbook to have only 1 worksheet when creating new file. But when I do right click from deskstop and choose new excel, the settings doesn't work and still give me 3 worksheets. Can help?
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (3/15/2013 1:09:31 PM)Hi Azmi,
I don't think you can change that. There are certain ways of creating a new Excel file that ignore your custom settings. This appears to be one of them.
Comment by: rafeek (4/19/2013 2:09:25 PM)first i unstalled office2003in win7.then installed office2007. but the excel file is not open directly. excel.pip is in recommended program. microsoft excel could not add in recommended program.all excel file see in unknown format
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (4/20/2013 9:14:10 PM)Hi rafeek,
Have you tried the other options on this page already?
Comment by: Mayank (5/1/2013 7:51:48 PM)I have a one user, opens the excel template gets the Automation Error, select "Ok" and receive the following "Microsoft Visual Basic" error:
"System error &H80004005 (-2147467259). Unspecfied error."
The same file works for everyone else,I checked the MSCOMCTL.OCX in C:\Windows\System32 folder. Compare the dates of this file on the computers that are receiving the error with the file on a working pc.Copied the file from working PC and re-register the ocx file:
using the command prompt:
change to C:\Windows\system32 directory and unregister and regisgter the mscomctl.ocx active x control.
But still gets the same error for him. I tried this multiple times using the different(mscomctl.ocx) files, but no luck.
Could any one suggest me what should I try more to fix the issue, what exactly causing the error.
Many Thanks in advance,
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (5/1/2013 8:56:03 PM)Hi Mayank,
That one user isn't by any chance on a 64 bit Office installation, is he/she?
Comment by: MAYANk (5/1/2013 9:50:14 PM)Hi Jan,
Thanks for your reply, Not sure, how to check whether it is 64 bit Office installation or 32 bit.
But I m sure, that PC is 32 bit, coz I re-registered mscomctl.ocx using regsvr32 and it was successful.
Comment by: Jan Karel Pieterse (5/2/2013 9:46:29 AM)Hi Mayank,
the fact that you can use regsvr32 does not mean you have a 64 bit system as far as I know.
If you launch Excel and click File, Help, it will show "About Microsoft Excel" on the right-hand side of the screen, which also shows whether it is 32 or 64 bit Excel.
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