Opening excel file directly is very slow

Anonymous

I can open Excel directly and it launches immediately - not an issue.

I can launch Excel directly and then open a file - it opens the file immediately.

However if I open a file directly - without previously launching excel - it takes a long time - 30 to 40s.

I have tried many suggestions found online but none help. Does anyone have any ideas please?

Win 7 64 Bit

Office 2010

Thanks

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Anonymous

Solved.......I worked it out from searching the internet.

The issue is Superfetch. Mine was switched off.

As soon as it was turned on from Regedit followed by me starting it in Services - it works perfectly!

Here is the text from the solution....

I found this on Technipages website:

Mitch wrote:

"Superfetch caches data to RAM so that it can be immediately available to your application. Sometimes this can affect the performance of certain applications. It tends to not work well with gaming, but can improve performance with business apps.

To modify whether Superfetch is enabled or disabled, you can perform the following steps:

Click the Start orb and type REGEDIT in the Start Search area.
Open the Registry Editor.
Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

then SYSTEM

then CurrentControlSet

then Control

then Session Manager

then MemoryManagement ****then click PrefetchParameters

On the right side, double-click on EnableSuperfetch
Give it one of the following values:

0 to disable Superfetch

1 to enable prefetching when program is launched

2 to enable boot prefetching

3 to enable prefectching of everything

Hit OK then Close RegEdit. "

Then goto the services MSC ("windows key + r" or just "windows key" and type services.msc). Scroll down to Superfetch and now should start. Click Start on the left info pane or double click it and change to automatic, then attempt to start again.

For informational purposes I chose the 4th option to enable prefetching for everything.

Hope this helps.

A.J. Silverman

MCSE+I, MCP, A+

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84 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-11-05T11:00:37+00:00
After searching some more, I found a solution modifying the registry. A bit dirty, but it seems to work:
1. Change the (default) value of the following key:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command]

to:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\EXCEL.EXE" "%1"
1. Remove or backup the command subkey
2. Remove or backup the ddexec key
Note: Office 2010 is in the Office14 folder instead of the Office15 folder, if I'm not mistaken.

After these changes, my [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open] registry key looks as follows - you can save this as a .reg file and run it (export yours first!)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open]

@="&Open"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command]

@=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\EXCEL.EXE" "%1""

"command.bck"=hex(7):79,00,68,00,31,00,42,00,56,00,35,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,\

00,34,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,4d,00,4b,00,4b,00,53,00,6b,00,45,00,58,00,\

43,00,45,00,4c,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,3e,00,4f,00,66,00,31,00,52,\

00,44,00,3f,00,49,00,39,00,62,00,39,00,6a,00,5b,00,32,00,68,00,4c,00,5d,00,\

4b,00,68,00,4f,00,26,00,00,00,2f,00,70,00,20,00,22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,\

00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\

5c,00,4d,00,69,00,63,00,72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,20,00,4f,00,66,\

00,66,00,69,00,63,00,65,00,5c,00,4f,00,66,00,66,00,69,00,63,00,65,00,31,00,\

35,00,5c,00,45,00,58,00,43,00,45,00,4c,00,2e,00,45,00,58,00,45,00,22,00,20,\

00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec.bck]

@="[open("%1" /ou "%u")]"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec.bck\application]

@="Excel"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec.bck\topic]

@="system"
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Anonymous

2013-04-17T16:12:33+00:00

Any other ideas? I have the same problem and unfortunately AJ's solution did not resolve the issue for me.

Launching Excel by double clicking an .xls file results in a 15 second open time (my test .xls file is very small and has only one 5 character word typed into cell A1). I'm using a new 16 core Xeon workstation running Win 7 Pro and Office 2013.

Excel launches without delay on its own, and then if I double click on an .xls file it opens instantly in the same instance of Excel.

Any help is appreciated.
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Anonymous

2013-02-27T07:21:53+00:00
Here are the answers you require - thank you
1. Is this issue experienced only on a specific Excel file or on all Excel files?
No - any excel file on the machine. However if I open them from a launched application of excel it is fine - it opens immediately. However when I try to open the xls file without having prelaunched excel, it takes a long time.
1. What is the size of the Excel file and where is it saved? It is on local drive or on a network location?
It is saved on my machine - not a network.

The file size is irrelevent. It can be a blank workbook with nothing on it - it still takes a long time.
1. What are the contents of the Excel file? Does it contain any complex formulas?
No. It can be blank.
1. Do you experience any similar issues with other Office applications like Word or Excel?
No. Word is fine. Power Point is fine. They both open when I click on a document directly to launch the software. Very fast on those. Please note - it is EXCEL that I have the issue with only.

I have noticed from forums that others have this issue also. But cant find a solution.
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Anonymous

2014-12-22T23:04:07+00:00
After searching some more, I found a solution modifying the registry. A bit dirty, but it seems to work:

Change the (default) value of the following key:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command]

to:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\EXCEL.EXE" "%1"

Remove or backup the command subkey

Remove or backup the ddexec key

Note: Office 2010 is in the Office14 folder instead of the Office15 folder, if I'm not mistaken.

After these changes, my [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open] registry key looks as follows - you can save this as a .reg file and run it (export yours first!)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open]

@="&Open"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command]

@=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15\EXCEL.EXE" "%1""

"command.bck"=hex(7):79,00,68,00,31,00,42,00,56,00,35,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,\

00,34,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,4d,00,4b,00,4b,00,53,00,6b,00,45,00,58,00,\

43,00,45,00,4c,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,3e,00,4f,00,66,00,31,00,52,\

00,44,00,3f,00,49,00,39,00,62,00,39,00,6a,00,5b,00,32,00,68,00,4c,00,5d,00,\

4b,00,68,00,4f,00,26,00,00,00,2f,00,70,00,20,00,22,00,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,50,\

00,72,00,6f,00,67,00,72,00,61,00,6d,00,20,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,\

5c,00,4d,00,69,00,63,00,72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,20,00,4f,00,66,\

00,66,00,69,00,63,00,65,00,5c,00,4f,00,66,00,66,00,69,00,63,00,65,00,31,00,\

35,00,5c,00,45,00,58,00,43,00,45,00,4c,00,2e,00,45,00,58,00,45,00,22,00,20,\

00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec.bck]

@="[open("%1" /ou "%u")]"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec.bck\application]

@="Excel"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec.bck\topic]

@="system"
This fixed my issue. Big thanks!
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