Has anyone else encountered this problem? Receive an Excel file in email (both GMail and (desktop) Outlook 2016 (using a live.com account, not a GMail one) have been tested); Double click on it to open it. (Excel 2016 is already open); The file opens in Excel with that irritating little "Oooooh, very dangerous! Could be scary monsters inside!" message which, I'll admit, is potentially useful for files from outside the organisation which is the only reason that I leave it on. Of course, there's no point if it doesn't actually work. Then one of two things happens. Either You go to click the Enable Editing button and Excel completely hangs on you; or You get the "Excel (Protected Mode) {breathless pause...} Has! Stopped! Working! Pretending to check for a solution that has never once been found in my lifetime, please waste your time waiting" dialog. There is nothing wrong with the file itself. I have tried with two different files, both have a problem. In both cases if instead of opening them from the Email application I save them to a trusted location I can open them without problem. But opening them directly from either browser or Outlook completely crashes Excel 2016 in a way that it didn't with Excel 2010. Anyone else? PS: If anyone from Microsoft responds to this post, looking into this specific question , I'll be more than happy to listen. If instead they copy and paste a script about restarting Windows in Safe Mode I may just need to throw a shoe at something.

I just heard back from a displaylink tech support person. Apparently they are aware of the issue. He had me do a work around that has fixed the issue for me. Open a blank excel document. Go to file 3. Go to options Go to advanced Under Display Check the box...Disable graphics hardware acceleration. 7. Click apply. This has fixed my issue until there is a driver update. Thanks...Matt

Just came across this same exact problem with a client. SP3 in a SP dock getting the same error with Office 365 running 2016. Did you find a resolution to this problem? I will be trying the disabling Graphics Acceleration trick as soon as the client is available.

Hi Bruce, I believe many of the individuals on this thread are in fact encountering the DisplayLink issue and may benefit from the updated driver. With regards to the issue you mention - I am able to open a file from the web ( one that opens in Protected View ) while already having Excel open with unsaved changes. Is there additional information you could provide to help me in attempting to reproduce the issue you mention? Tom - Thanks for responding. I've been traveling for the last few days and was unable to reply. Hopefully your next response won't take another month. The problem I have is opening both Word and Excel documents sent in email from inside the Outlook 2016 email client. When attempting to Preview either Word or Excel files inside Outlook, I get an error message saying "The file cannot be previewed because the following previewer has been disabled: Microsoft Excel [or Word] previewer. Clicking on the "Enable previewer" button does nothing. When I attempt to open Word or Excel files inside OL 2016, I get different results for each, but neither works. When attempting to open an Excel file, I get the Excel splash screen and animation, but the file never opens and Excel is hung. At this point, the only way out is to force quit Excel using Task Manager. When attempting to open a Word file inside OL 2016, the splash screen appears. Then I get an error message saying "Microsoft Word (Protected View) has stopped working. Windows is checking for a solution to the problem." That goes away fairly quickly and I get an error message that says: Word experienced an error trying to open the file. Try these suggestions. Check the file permissions for the document or drive. Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space. Open the file with the Text Recovery converter It is possible to click OK on this message to make it go away. It doesn't matter if Word or Excel is previously open or not, but as my first post indicated, with Excel, if you have something else open and unsaved, you are going to lose that data since the only way out of this mess is to force Excel to quit using Task Manager. I have a portable USB display I use when traveling which utilizes DisplayLink technology, but the drivers have been updated and the "Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration" work-around does not help. Additionally, I don't use the USB display when my Surface Pro 3 is in my office and sitting in the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 dock. Since I've also seen this problem in other machines I manage that have never had a DisplayLink device attached, the DisplayLink driver cannot be the problem. If this is a problem with drivers or hardware on the Surface Pro 3, one would think that Microsoft, controlling all aspects of software and hardware, could easily get on top of this issue. How do I fix this?

Excel 2016 (Protected Mode) Crashing When Opening Files From Email

Anonymous

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Receive an Excel file in email (both GMail and (desktop) Outlook 2016 (using a live.com account, not a GMail one) have been tested);
Double click on it to open it. (Excel 2016 is already open);
The file opens in Excel with that irritating little "Oooooh, very dangerous! Could be scary monsters inside!" message which, I'll admit, is potentially useful for files from outside the organisation which is the only reason that I leave it on. Of course, there's no point if it doesn't actually work.

Then one of two things happens. Either

You go to click the Enable Editing button and Excel completely hangs on you; or
You get the "Excel (Protected Mode) {breathless pause...} Has! Stopped! Working! Pretending to check for a solution that has never once been found in my lifetime, please waste your time waiting" dialog.

There is nothing wrong with the file itself. I have tried with two different files, both have a problem. In both cases if instead of opening them from the Email application I save them to a trusted location I can open them without problem. But opening them directly from either browser or Outlook completely crashes Excel 2016 in a way that it didn't with Excel 2010.

Anyone else?

PS: If anyone from Microsoft responds to this post, looking into this specific question, I'll be more than happy to listen. If instead they copy and paste a script about restarting Windows in Safe Mode I may just need to throw a shoe at something.

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.

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

I just heard back from a displaylink tech support person. Apparently they are aware of the issue. He had me do a work around that has fixed the issue for me.

Open a blank excel document.
Go to file

3. Go to options

Go to advanced
Under Display
Check the box...Disable graphics hardware acceleration.

7. Click apply.

This has fixed my issue until there is a driver update.

Thanks...Matt

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Updated to displaylink driver 7.9m5 dated 2/23/2016 and problem was resolved for me.

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88 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-03-01T22:33:38+00:00

Just came across this same exact problem with a client.

SP3 in a SP dock getting the same error with Office 365 running 2016.

Did you find a resolution to this problem?

I will be trying the disabling Graphics Acceleration trick as soon as the client is available.
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Anonymous

2016-02-16T19:03:55+00:00

you are god, thank you.
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Anonymous

2016-02-05T10:17:57+00:00
Hi Bruce,

I believe many of the individuals on this thread are in fact encountering the DisplayLink issue and may benefit from the updated driver. With regards to the issue you mention - I am able to open a file from the web ( one that opens in Protected View ) while already having Excel open with unsaved changes. Is there additional information you could provide to help me in attempting to reproduce the issue you mention?

Tom -

Thanks for responding. I've been traveling for the last few days and was unable to reply. Hopefully your next response won't take another month.

The problem I have is opening both Word and Excel documents sent in email from inside the Outlook 2016 email client.

When attempting to Preview either Word or Excel files inside Outlook, I get an error message saying "The file cannot be previewed because the following previewer has been disabled: Microsoft Excel [or Word] previewer. Clicking on the "Enable previewer" button does nothing.

When I attempt to open Word or Excel files inside OL 2016, I get different results for each, but neither works. When attempting to open an Excel file, I get the Excel splash screen and animation, but the file never opens and Excel is hung. At this point, the only way out is to force quit Excel using Task Manager.

When attempting to open a Word file inside OL 2016, the splash screen appears. Then I get an error message saying "Microsoft Word (Protected View) has stopped working. Windows is checking for a solution to the problem." That goes away fairly quickly and I get an error message that says:

Word experienced an error trying to open the file. Try these suggestions.
- Check the file permissions for the document or drive.
- Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space.
- Open the file with the Text Recovery converter
It is possible to click OK on this message to make it go away.

It doesn't matter if Word or Excel is previously open or not, but as my first post indicated, with Excel, if you have something else open and unsaved, you are going to lose that data since the only way out of this mess is to force Excel to quit using Task Manager.

I have a portable USB display I use when traveling which utilizes DisplayLink technology, but the drivers have been updated and the "Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration" work-around does not help. Additionally, I don't use the USB display when my Surface Pro 3 is in my office and sitting in the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 dock. Since I've also seen this problem in other machines I manage that have never had a DisplayLink device attached, the DisplayLink driver cannot be the problem.

If this is a problem with drivers or hardware on the Surface Pro 3, one would think that Microsoft, controlling all aspects of software and hardware, could easily get on top of this issue. How do I fix this?
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