Excel won't open maximized

My issue was similar:

* Date: December 2017

* Excel 2016

* The first spreadsheet opens in a maximized window

* Every next spreadsheet opens almost maximized, but

   - the top edge of the spreadsheet was ~2 cm below the upper edge of the screen;

   - the bottom edge of the spreadsheet was aligned with the bottom edge of the screen, RATHER THAN THE TASKBAR as it should be!

   - The 2 sides (right and left) were aligned with the edges of the screen (ok).

* This was frustrating as **** (had to maximize every spreadsheet that I open before using it).

Solution that worked for me:

* It seems to have been linked to the Taskbar (wrong alignment of the bottom spreadsheet border suggested that).

* I checked Taskbar (right mouse click): "Lock Taskbar" was off, i.e. I could manually change its width.

* I changed Taskbar width to the max making it take up about 40% of my screen.

* Opened the Excel spreadsheet - this time it opened better. Its bottom edge was finally aligned with the Taskbar (and was NOT aligned with the bottom edge of the screen, sort of extending behind the taskbar all the way down).

* Closed Excel (maybe I saved it, maybe not, can't remember now).

* Resized Taskbar again, back to the standard 1-row Taskbar.

* Opened the Excel spreadsheet again - and voila!

It was finally maximized, just like every other spreadsheet that I open in addition to it.

You are welcome.

Grasping at straws here since I don't have 2010, but one thing that works in some applications is to:

• open,
• maximize,
• then hold the Shift key down while clicking the close button.

Works (usually) for IE (XP and Vista), and has worked for XL2007 on Vista for me

Worked for me in Windows 10, Office 365

It appears you used two different icons to start Excel, one that opened it maximized, the other did not.  If so, I suspect, you were using a command line switch to control how Excel opened.  AFAIK, Excel 2007 and 2010 removed many if not all of the switches.

You could use a VBS script to accomplish the same.

Save the below as, say, XLmax.vbs

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

wshshell.run """c:\program files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\Excel.exe""",3

Save the below as, say, XLreg.vbs

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

wshshell.run """c:\program files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\Excel.exe""",1

Double-click the first to open Excel with its window maximized, the second to open it with 'normal' focus.

You can experiment with the last argument.  See

Run Method (Windows Script Host)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d5fk67ky%28VS.85%29.aspx

Yes, it's not the fact that it's hidden that's at issue. I realize a workaround is to make an auto-run macro in the auto-load speadsheet so that it opens maximized everytime regardless of whether you try to start it normal or maximized.

 

Another workaround it to manualyl maximize the window after Excell 2010 loads. IT was much better when you could control this by the property setting in the icon used to sart the program. IN this re Excel 2010 doesn't hold to the standards very well.

It sure was easier to get this simple thing the way you wanted it in priior verisons. I'm still hoping SP1 corrects this deficit in the design.

---

sh

Tushar Mehta (Technology and Operations Consulting)

www.tushar-mehta.com (Excel and PowerPoint add-ins and tutorials)

Microsoft MVP Excel 2000-Present

One, the personal notebook is loaded automatically by Excel, without any coding required (it autoloads the personal.xls in C:\Documents and Settings[username]\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART

 Two, because you never had to do that with previous versions;

Three, because sometimes you do want to load non-maximized and it was easier to have a couple of icons to control this (one for nomram and one for maximized) than the have to hard code it intop the personal file.

sh

Thanks for the suggestion. It too fails to fix matter. Seems to especially stubborn in Excel 2010. Apparently if you open a hidden personal file to load macros, you will never get a maximized Excel on startup in the 2010 version. Guess we wait for the SP1 and see what happens.

sh