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

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

90 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Deleted

    This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

    Comments have been turned off. Learn more

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

    Did not work for me.

    Was this answer helpful?

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

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

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. 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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. 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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments