After Last Update Scroll Inactive Windows Doesn't Work With Excel 2016

Hi Michelle,

I also run OffCAT on my own PC with these results:

Information Rights Management

Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013 doesn't support Information Rights Management S

You have Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013 installed. It does not support the

Information Rights Management feature.

VBA

Office 2013 configuration prevents VBA from running Miscellaneous: Miscellaneous

There is incorrect/missing registry data that is preventing VBA from running. Please click the

'Click here to see possible solutions to this issue' link for information on how to correct this

issue.

Please remember, that I could confirm the problem on several installation, even on a fresh installed Excel 2013 in a VirtualBox.

Now, I find it's the time of Microsoft to become aktive!

Hello Michelle,

1. I ran OffCAT 2.2 on both,

a) my active/updated HDD and b) my clone HDD (cloned on 24. October).

Result/conclusion:

I think OffCAT is not able/cannot help to identify the root cause of our problem

(because in my last/changed understanding the problem is not Excel/Office, but rather Windows 10)

Details:

Numerically my OffCAT scan results on Excel 2013 are

a) active/updated HDD: Critical= 1, Warning= 2, Informal= 5

b) cloned HDD               : Critical= 2, Warning= 2, Informal= 4

1+2+4=7 messages are identical, which include both, the critical and warning message Peter got and 2 out of the 3 informal messages KimAlbright got (by "fix-it" I succeeded to remove one of the two warning messages, but found no impact on "scroll inactive window", corresponding to the not related warning description, as possible time delay because some logging was set active).

The cloned HDD reported in addition as critical, that Office is not at the latest status. After 24.Oct I found only KB3200802 was released by 8.Nov which naturally is not included in my clone, but 8.Nov is clearly several days after the problem started (8.Nov as the only Office/Excel update does not coincide with the occurrence of our problem this means Office/Excel cannot be the root cause).

Surprisingly only the active/updated HDD reports informally, that 1 Windows update is not yet installed, whereas the cloned HDD, having clearly not up to date Windows status 24.Oct, did not give such message.

In above 2 differences I cannot see any relation to "scroll inactive window" and also the Office update timing is not matching which is why I concluded OffCAT is not able to identify the root cause of our problem (the root cause must be Windows 10).

2. To understand the situation you are seeing it would be nice you can give us some basic feedback as:

 - How many Windows 10 PC with Excel 2010/2013/2016 have you checked?

• On how many could you confirm our problem?

3. On Google search "scroll inactive window, Excel" I found that exactly our problem was encountered by MAC users with ‘Office for Mac 2011’ and their different operating system already beginning 2014.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice\_excel-mso\_mac/how-can-i-scroll-inactive-windows-in-excel/0add215f-61c9-4f0b-a5e7-7646c14fd8eb

I understand MAC users could scroll an inactive window with Word, but not with Excel. The only difference MAC <==> Windows seems to be, that for Windows 10 users "scroll inactive window"was working initially whereas for MAC users it seem not to have worked from the beginning.

4. When MAC users see basically the same characteristic I conclude, there must be a very basic difference between Word and Excel in their interaction with the operating system (Windows 10 or MacOS). As Peter has claimed I now think my previous statement "automatic Excel update that causes the blocking" is wrong/misleading.

Checking details on KB3197954 I found:

a) It got installed on my PC 28.Oct, which time wise coincides with the occurrence of the problem/non-ability to scroll inactive window around Excel

==> as others stated/confirmed by deactivating also I think root cause of problem is KB3197954

b) Microsoft describes KB3197954 as a Windows 10 update

c) A search for the word "Excel" in Microsoft’s huge info file on KB3197954 found no match at all

Seeing today all above points I think the problem root cause is not Excel by itself, but rather an interaction between Excel 2010/13/16 and Windows 10. Such interaction can be disturbed from both sides, Excel and/or Windows. In our case it looks like the root cause is Windows 10, because only Windows changes match time wise the disappearance of "scroll inactive window" around Excel.

5. Trying to analyze/understand further, in my image Windows 10 would need 2 basic functions to realize the "scroll inactive window" functionality.

a) Windows 10 must recognize on which window the mouse sits/points

b) Windows 10 must allocate the mouse scroll orders to the correct window

When Excel is the active window it is not possible to recognize any difference between both. The behavior, always the active Excel chart gets scrolled, can be explained by a) Windows recognizes/sees the Excel window on the complete screen as well as by b) Windows always allocates the mouse scroll orders to the Excel window.

When, however, Excel is the inactive window one can clearly see that Windows correctly recognizes the window on which the mouse is (the scroll on any other active/inactive windows stops when the mouse leaves that window/enters the Excel window).

==> I see a high chance KB3197954 has corrupted the way Windows allocates the mouse scroll signals to an Excel window (I believe Microsoft did something special to avoid the problem MAC users already saw 2014, but KB3197954 obviously removed/deactivated Microsoft’s previous special effort)

Summary/Conclusion:

As users we can describe what and how it changed, for which I think now many points have been given. To proceed further I think it is necessary to understand in detail how Microsoft technically realized the Windows 10 functionality "scroll inactive window" and this can be done only by Microsoft.

As I consider disappearance of "scroll inactive window" around Excel a problem/worsening the way I am working daily I am ready to do additional effort, but this requires also some feedback (my point 2) and progress (OffCAT was a trial, but according my last/revised understanding OffCAT cannot help/succeed, because problem is rather Windows).

Just to confirm, is your Office 2016 up-to-date?

Thank you.

Hi Michelle,

Yes, it's up to date.

Kim

My Office is up to date (in fact, it restarted itself at an inconvenient time yesterday to apply more updates), my Windows is up to date. By now it is blatantly obvious to everyone not working for Microsoft that one of the Windows Updates -- either KB3197954 or one of the others from that date -- broke this feature's functionality with respect to Excel. It's not drivers, it's not outdated software, it is directly from a Microsoft-supplied update.

If you have Office 2016/Office 365 and Windows 10, and everything's up to date, the Scroll Inactive Windows feature will not work for you if one of the Windows in question is Excel -- if Excel is the active window, it will not scroll other windows, not even other Excel ones; and if another window is active, it will not scroll any of the Excel windows, including and even within the VBA environment. Give it a try; it won't work. Then run whatever tools and diagnostics you want, hand those results over to your developers, and tell them to fix it.

Time to stop treating your customers as beta testers.