Opening excel file directly is very slow

ALright so when you say enable Cortana, you mean all those things you switch from off to on i guess. (the cortana features). I dont know one thing that enables cortana. There are a bunch of on and off buttons in the cortana settings. That must be what you are talking about when you say enable Cortana.

I did that and it didnt help.  Still have slow launch and others do too.

Maybe there is something else i need to do with Cortana. i dont know.

What i have to do is first open Excel and then click on the recent file. then it works.

IF i do a right click on excel on taskbar and then select a file, it is super slow to launch sometimes. Microsoft needs to address this.

Apparently, the ability to easily turn off Cortana was removed with the Anniversary update.  (Mine has been disabled long before the anniversary update.)  So once enabled, I guess you no longer see a disable option.  At least that is what I assume after seeing http://www.howtogeek.com/265027/how-to-disable-cortana-in-windows-10/.  I have not tried that approach.  You might want to search for other methods for disabling Cortana and compare to get an idea of exactly what the right procedure is now.  Sad that Microsoft has apparently removed this fairly simple on/off option.

I think what is sadder is that this shouldnt impact how Excel works. That is what is actually sad.

why should we have to disable a feature to get another one to work properly? THat is what is sad here.

ok, yeah, i have no disable option. i turned all the setttings off.  i called them processes before, but they are on/off toggles so not sure what those are called.

Only way i get Excel to open instantaneously is to open Excel first , then the file. sometimes the direct file opens instantly ,but not all the time. turning cortana toggles to off doesnt help that.

So that is my solution to this until MSFT gets it right.  Waste a ton of time trying to figure out these glitches. Shouldve been tested first before release. they cut corners and costs us time. MSFT, please do vigourous testing..before release. find real users and folks that are smart.

Lots of problems with the power settings too with this lenovo.  ignores them sometimes. WIndows 10 has been a challenge. too many bugs.

I think this is due to the fact that Microsoft so tightly integrates Office with the way Windows works.  I have no idea what Excel is doing on start, but I can only assume it's executing some code via COM or DCOM that results in Windows going off to do something and Excel sits there waiting for control to return to Excel.  Why they didn't put that on it's own thread and let it happen in the background, I don't know.  Clearly, turning whatever it is off does not destroy the functionality of Excel, because I turned the offending thing off.

And I don't know exactly what I turned off, except to call it generically "Cortana".  When you enable Cortana, there are several things Windows enables.  Which one of those several things is it?  I'm not sure and, like you, I don't want to waste my time trying to figure it out.  I just turned off everything that was enabled when I enabled Cortana (following some instructions I found online and by also comparing settings on a different computer I have on my desk).

Other than this Excel issue, I've actually not had any problems with Windows 10.  It's been pretty solid.  I did, however, get pretty upset that Microsoft took it upon themselves to decide it was a good idea to reboot my machine automatically.  I'm a software engineer who often works late and has a bunch of Windows open with code in them, often several to a Linux server where I do development.  To come back to the computer in the morning to see it rebooted is more than frustrating.  It takes a while to get everything back to the way it was so I can continue.  It's not that it takes that long, but it's just the fact I have to spend a minute or two doing it, because Microsoft gave no consideration to my time.  (Fortunately, I have Windows 10 Pro and there are ways to turn that off... and I did.  Those with home versions are just screwed.)