Excel 2013 starts up with blank screen when opened from explorer

Anonymous
2013-02-27T17:34:15+00:00

When I double click any Excel file in windows explorer, Excel starts up maximized and I can see the ribbon but the whole grid area where my data should be is blank, no gridlines or row/column headers.   If I "restore down" the Excel window then everything appears as normal.

I sometimes get subsequent Excel crashes.

I also get an Excel crash by clicking on an Excel file in windows explorer, as if to preview it.  The Excel file preview function is not working since I installed Office 2013 Professional.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-01-23T02:04:21+00:00

    Thanks! A lot of the tshoot on this thread revolves around Excel as a whole and not a particular workbook. The workbook I was using just went blank. It was like it exited without asking to be saved. Now it makes sense though I'm not sure how popular Hide is.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-10T01:52:37+00:00

    Tried everything (turning off hardware acceleration, ignore DDE, repair, KB2994633 etc) but none of it worked.

    The Windows Explorer Preview pane showed the xlsx file fine but Excel showed a blank gray screen.

    My solution:

    1. Double click the problematic Excel file
    2. Go to View tab in Excel
    3. Click on Unhide - a window appeared to me where I could select to Unhide workbook.
    4. Voila! :)

    I had to re-save / overwrite the file to make the solution permanent. Perhaps if anyone has the same problem, take a backup of the problematic file and send it to Microsoft so they solve this problem once and for all.

    I wasted 2½ hours on this - and even installed Office Configuration Analyzer but that did not help either.

    Running Windows 10, Excel 2013 with all the latest updates as of Nov 10th 2015.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-05T00:39:07+00:00

    Tried the DDE, uncheck dynamic graphics and stuff wit no luck. Repair worked for me.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-31T16:49:10+00:00

    Did not work for me.

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