Excel 2013 Starting With Two Windows?

It wasn't a purely "new installation" or you wouldn't have anything in your personal.xlsm. You most likely had either had excel on the machine before, or you upgraded (or maybe even opened a file that stored a macro in your personal.xlsm is a possibility).  Yours is the simplest of these issues because it was caused by coding issues in your own macros (usually from coding them in an older version and upgrading or poorly designed code).  Most folks on this thread have installed 3rd party add ons or ran other scripts unknowingly that have affected settings other than simply putting a bad macro in their personal.xlsm. So their problem wasn't of their own doing.  My apologies for adding this solution to your thread for it is not relevant.   

Also, for yours and other's reference, your fix is more of a band-aid because it limits excels ability to automatically call the macros in personal.xlsm which many of us would require and wouldn't want to have to manually initiate each time.  To permanently fix your system, you could totally remove your personal.xlsm, and re add the macros back into the Excel 2013 either through VB Editor or re-recording them, if that's how you did it the first time (so it creates a new personal.xlsm with your macros in it and no errors).  If your macros are coded properly, you will not have the issue going forward and you won't have to open personal.xlsm every time you need one of those macros.

Hope this helps someone :)

This post is buried in the thread so I will re-post here.  It will most likely fix your problem.  Please mark this and the original post as helpful so it will move up the results.  

"I found this to be an easy fix.  You have most likely installed an add in that modified your basic Excel settings.  It can be very hard to locate the exact settings that cause the extra window to open.  If you are at your wits end, press ' "win"+r ' to open the run program dialog box, then enter "excel /o" and press enter (no quotation marks) and it will reset your excel to the initial settings.  In most cases, this is the easiest way to solve the problem.

We're here to help.  Visit our page at workspacepros.com (we're redesigning our website so it is currently down; should be back up in a week or less; as of 4-10-15).  *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Your Expert Excel Resource,

Michael"

This was a new installation and first time use. I Tried the above suggestion and Safe mode neither of them worked for me. The only solution which did that still allows me access to the macros stored in my personal .xlsb file was the solution i posted of marking the file as hidden. i have not had an issue since.

While i appreciate your response, you should not assume that you are correct. This was a purely new installation. I added the macros to the personal file myself. It was only after this that the double window started appearing. Hiding the personal.xlsb does not limit excel from accessing the macros stored in it as I am perfectly able to run any of them from the shortcuts on my ribbon.

It wasn't a purely "new installation" or you wouldn't have anything in your personal.xlsm. You most likely had either had excel on the machine before, or you upgraded (or maybe even opened a file that stored a macro in your personal.xlsm is a possibility).  Yours is the simplest of these issues because it was caused by coding issues in your own macros (usually from coding them in an older version and upgrading or poorly designed code).  Most folks on this thread have installed 3rd party add ons or ran other scripts unknowingly that have affected settings other than simply putting a bad macro in their personal.xlsm. So their problem wasn't of their own doing.  My apologies for adding this solution to your thread for it is not relevant.   

Also, for yours and other's reference, your fix is more of a band-aid because it limits excels ability to automatically call the macros in personal.xlsm which many of us would require and wouldn't want to have to manually initiate each time.  To permanently fix your system, you could totally remove your personal.xlsm, and re add the macros back into the Excel 2013 either through VB Editor or re-recording them, if that's how you did it the first time (so it creates a new personal.xlsm with your macros in it and no errors).  If your macros are coded properly, you will not have the issue going forward and you won't have to open personal.xlsm every time you need one of those macros.

Hope this helps someone :)

This post is buried in the thread so I will re-post here.  It will most likely fix your problem.  Please mark this and the original post as helpful so it will move up the results.  

"I found this to be an easy fix.  You have most likely installed an add in that modified your basic Excel settings.  It can be very hard to locate the exact settings that cause the extra window to open.  If you are at your wits end, press ' "win"+r ' to open the run program dialog box, then enter "excel /o" and press enter (no quotation marks) and it will reset your excel to the initial settings.  In most cases, this is the easiest way to solve the problem.

We're here to help.  Visit our page at workspacepros.com (we're redesigning our website so it is currently down; should be back up in a week or less; as of 4-10-15).  *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

Your Expert Excel Resource,

Michael"

This was a new installation and first time use. I Tried the above suggestion and Safe mode neither of them worked for me. The only solution which did that still allows me access to the macros stored in my personal .xlsb file was the solution i posted of marking the file as hidden. i have not had an issue since.

These comments are for others who would still like to Excel to function as designed.  Your work around works great for you.  I'm just steering those with less knowledge away from this fix, as it is reduces functionality of Excel for those who need startup code to automatically run.