Opening excel file directly is very slow

Anonymous
2013-02-26T12:25:10+00:00

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

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2013-03-02T00:50:36+00:00

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:

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

then SYSTEM

then CurrentControlSet

then Control

then Session Manager

then MemoryManagement ****then click PrefetchParameters

  1. On the right side, double-click on EnableSuperfetch
  2. 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+

Was this answer helpful?

100+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

84 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
  1. Anonymous
    2016-12-24T19:14:25+00:00

    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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-12-24T00:41:24+00:00

    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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-12-23T21:34:43+00:00

    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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-12-23T18:33:05+00:00

    I didn't touch the processes in task manager, if that's what you're asking. I turned off Cortana from within the menus where you configure settings for Cortana. So now if i click the button where I could ask Cortana a question, Cortana isn't there. It's just a search box.

    I don't recall every setting I changed, but when you enable Cortana there are a number of changes made to Windows. I followed instructions I found online to disable all the privacy settings Cortana changes when you give it permission.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments No comments