2016 Excel opens two windows when opening file

Anonymous
2017-10-24T21:36:41+00:00

When I open an Excel file from Explorer by clicking on the file, two windows open: the spreadsheet AND a second Excel window, no spreadsheet open--just a blank Excel Window.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2018-01-19T18:57:25+00:00

Your 'c' option fixed this issue for me.   I recently installed MySQL on my laptop and that was the COM Add-in that triggered a secondary 'blank' spreadsheet.   As soon as I unchecked 'MySQL for Excel' under COM Add-ins, I only open the spreadsheet I desired.

Thanks

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Anonymous
2018-07-04T03:07:13+00:00

I disabled the solver add-ins and no more second sheet (blank) : options --> Add-ins --> Manage Excel Add-ins  (bottom) --> Go...

Unchecked Solver Add-in box and it worked.

I may need later to re-enable the Solver Add-in but at least I have a way to disable that second annoying window. Hope this helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-08-31T01:13:01+00:00

    This for the most part worked for me; however, I had to recreate the PERSONAL.XLSB file that's in %appdata%/Microsoft/Excel/XLSTART.  I tried to simply copy it out-and-back but the problem returned when I did that...apparently the file was corrupted. 

    So my approach was to:

    open Excel,

    open Developer/Visual Basic,

    navigate to VBAProject (PERSONAL.XLSB)

    open Modules/module1

    copy my macros to a Notepad file

    close Excel

    move PERSONAL.XLSB out of XLSTART

    open Excel

    create one macro (choose "Store macro in: Personal Macro Workbook)

    open Visual Basic module1 again

    delete the macro I just created

    paste the macros I saved from the Notepad backup into Module1

    close Excel

    And now I only get one instance opened.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-09-04T11:27:09+00:00

    For me Option c works as well.  I recently installed MySQL on my laptop and that was the COM Add-in that triggered a secondary 'blank' spreadsheet.   As soon as I unchecked 'MySQL for Excel' under COM Add-ins, I only open the spreadsheet I desired

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-09-06T15:57:43+00:00

    I am a developer of an Excel add-in, and this 'second grey window' problem appeared about a year ago as part of an Office update.

    Because Microsoft has a habit of introducing as many (or more) bugs than fixes, we have a habit of keeping some development computers around that don't accept automatic Office updates.

    On Office 365 version 16.0.4429.1024, our add-in works correctly. (no second grey window)

    On the most recent version of Office 365, launching our add-in causes a second grey window to be launched.

    Exact same add-in; it is Microsoft Excel that changed.

    For obvious reasons, advising our customers to 'disable our add-in' is not an acceptable solution.

    Is it possible for Microsoft to isolate what changed in Excel?

    and then either:

    1. Fix it (to work the way Excel has always worked in the past with add-ins)

    or 2) At least let us developers know what changed, and how we can re-write our applications to work with Excel's (currently undocumented) revised code?

    Dean Ziegler

    Systems2win

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