Excel 2013 Starting With Two Windows?

Anonymous
2013-03-03T19:48:44+00:00

Upon installation of Office 2013 yesterday, I have found in a day that Excel starts with Two Windows, i.e. one is the application with no Book, while the other offering to select from a collection of templates, from which if I select Blank Workbook, the blank one window remains to be opened, while the other operating one opens with a default template instead of the Book.xltx & Sheet.xltx placed in XLStart folder of Office15? Even upon exiting I need to close both the windows separately, in other words using Alt+F4 twice.

Any idea, what might be causing the trouble?

Thanx in advance.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2013-03-04T12:13:14+00:00

Hello Faraz,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft community. We are glad to assist you with your concern.

As per the description, looks like the Excel application starts in two windows.

To resolve the issue, let us open Excel in application safe and check how they work.

To do that, press the ‘Windows + R’ key on the keyboard.

In the Run open box type in ‘Excel /safe’ and hit ok.

Note: There is a space between Excel and /.

If application safe mode works, try disabling the add-ins associated with Excel applications and check.

To do that, do the following:

  1. Open the application. Click on File and then click on options.
  2. In the Options Window click on Add-ins.
  3. Select Com Add-ins in the Manage list in the Add-ins section and click Go. Now uncheck the all the add-ins and click Ok.

You may also refer to the section Additional troubleshooting in the following article and check if it helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/280504

If you still have questions, you can always reply and I’ll be happy to assist you.

Thank you

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Anonymous
2013-07-18T16:53:50+00:00

Here's what finally appears to have worked for me. I suspected that it had something to do with the PERSONAL.XLSB workbook so after closing a regular workbook and getting the blank gray window I went to View>Window and found that Unhide was the only option so I clicked that and then Hide and saved the change and now everything closes as it should.

Bloody annoying that no one in MS support has been any help on this.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-04-10T15:53:43+00:00

    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).  ******@workspacepros.com

    Your Expert Excel Resource,

    Michael

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-03-27T12:59:19+00:00

    Upon installation of Office 2013 yesterday, I have found in a day that Excel starts with Two Windows, i.e. one is the application with no Book, while the other offering to select from a collection of templates, from which if I select Blank Workbook, the blank one window remains to be opened, while the other operating one opens with a default template instead of the Book.xltx & Sheet.xltx placed in XLStart folder of Office15? Even upon exiting I need to close both the windows separately, in other words using Alt+F4 twice.

    Any idea, what might be causing the trouble?

    Thanx in advance.

    Replying to the OP's message...

    I was just forced to install Office 2013 :( and was confronted with the same issue as the OP.  I don't have the solution, but I believe I can explain the problem and maybe someone else (hint MS) can provide a valid, uncumbersome solution.

    The ISSUE:  A second window opens when loading PERSONAL.XLSB upon opening an excel file and enabling macros.

    In Excel 2007 this issue was resolved by hiding the PERSONAL.XLSB workbook.  This worked because in Excel 2007 all workbooks opened in the same window/instance (unless you chose differently by using the registry fix "open in a new excel instance").  So in fact, the PERSONAL.XLSB was open but hidden.

    Now in Excel 2013, new excel workbooks/files open in a new 'window' instead of the same window so using the "hide" option "hides" the workbook but the Excel instance is still open as another window.

    Hopefully someone can work from this point.

    --Mike.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-03-03T19:25:42+00:00

    What I found to to work was moving the file from the XLSTART folder to my desktop.  This preserves the macros and stops the double windows.  When you need to use the macros you have already created, I have found the following to work: Open the excel file that needs the macros first, then double click on the 'Personal.xlsb' file from my desktop.  Excel then asks if you will want to enable these macros in the file you have already opened and I am able to use my macros!

    Hope this helps!

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