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
    2016-04-19T11:20:01+00:00

    Option 4 works for me. I disabled my VBA add-ins.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-04-30T13:14:46+00:00

    this worked for me except where in your sample code you have:

    "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\Root\Office15\EXCEL.EXE" "%!

    I put

    "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\Root\Office15\EXCEL.EXE" "%1"

    as per your text .. then bingo problem fixed

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-09T20:28:13+00:00

    I know this is an old thread however I recently faced the same issue. I would open up a file and excel was open up, but the screen would be grayed out with no worksheet. This only happened to one specific file. What I did was the following to make it work:

    1. Shut down excel 2013
    2. Right Click the file icon
    3. Click on Properties
    4. Under "general Tab," at the bottom there is a message that mentions this file has been created by another system. Click the button to the right of that says "Unblock." This resolved my issue. Hopefully this helps.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-06-30T10:47:29+00:00

    **Check you accidentally have not hidden the workbook**

    I went through all these fixes and could not find a solution until I did the same to another file. Especially common when have been freezing and unfreezing rows. Such a palm to face moment

    1. Go to View (mine is in French but ignore) and select afficher/view

    1. Select your workbook  

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-07-13T00:04:04+00:00

    I had a similar problem.  I opened a workbook which I have been working for years. Only that, for the last few updates I had not backed it up in my External HD. It happened, today when I opened my workbook it opened totally in white. No grids, nothing. However, when I opened up the Ribbon and got to the "View" tab, I saw something strange, Everything was static except the "Unhide". When I clicked it, everything in the page returned to its rightful place. Apparently, I had accidentally hidden the whole page.

    I place this experience here in case someone is going through the same experience. Before doing anything else, get up to your Ribbon and check your "View" Then follow up and repeat what I did.

    This might be and old problem, but someone might be having a 2016 recurrence.

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