Excel 2016 - open all files in ONE instance

Hi Rohn007,

Appreciate an MVP's insight, thanks for trying to help.

Regarding the Outlook attachments - generally, I open my Outlook attachments for the sole purpose of comparing the contents with another file I have open in Excel at that point. I never need to edit the attachment, so it makes no difference to me where it's going to be saved. In fact saving the attachment in a folder before opening would be a bad practice for me in this case as it would simply be a waste of time, especially with the volumes I am currently going through (~30-50 per day). What would really make my job easier, would be if I could rely on Excel to always open my attachments in the same instance as the file I am comparing it with, so that I can copy&paste between workbooks if I need to and I don't need to update all the macros that do some of the comparing for me to account for accessing the attachment file in other Excel instances.

As for the SafeMode - thank you for the explanation. As you can see, all that the support agent suggested at the time, was "Please start your PC in safe mode to see the result." and the hyperlink brings me to an article about Windows safe mode with no mention of Office safe mode. So if I was supposed to test the Office safe mode instead, I didn't know.

I have one Acitve Addin that loads with my Excel - the MS Azure Information Protection. I also have a personal macro workbook in XLSTART folder. I deactivated the Azure addin now and removed the personal workbook from the startup folder - so no addins or macro files are loaded with Excel. And.... I'm seeing the same inconsistent results with multiple instances of Excel opening :(

Regarding the RAM - one of my systems has 12, the other has 16 GB of RAM and as you can (almost) see in the gif files I shared earlier, my test Excel files are 11kB blank workbooks with one worksheet - I seriously doubt opening 10 of them at one time causes me to run out of RAM memory. The Excel attachments I open from Outlook are 100-150 kB in size so again, don't think that's too much for the system to handle. Also, to me, logically, if I have 1 Excel file open in my 1 Excel instance and then open another Excel file from Outlook attachment, surely opening a whole new instance of Excel for the attachment file vs. opening the attachment in the existing instance is going to require more RAM resources, would you agree with that? But hey, I'm all for finding the cause of the issue, so I will test it again tomorrow keeping an eye on the RAM usage.

I am on 32 bit version (see the very first sentence in my initial post). Again, I doubt it's the RAM, so not sure how a 64-bit version would make a difference here. I can try installing it cause I'm all for thorough testing, but I've had it before and it kept crashing for me more than the 32-bit version. Most importantly though, the lack of Black office theme in 64-bit version is just a no-go for me.

Thanks,

J.

One issue that does not appear to be addressed is opening attachments in Outlook. That is a bad practice. If you make any changes to the file, they will be saved in your temp folder, rather than where you expect.  You should always download attachments before opening them.

You questioned the use of Safe mode.  Safe mode in Office applications, like Excel, blocks the start of ALL addins.  Addins have a long tradition of causing seemingly random problems in Office applications.  There is also a Windows Safe mode that limits the Windows processes started. One of them is required for Office 365 applications. 

Note: if you have Office 365, after you start Windows you will probably have to manually start the “Microsoft Office Click-To-Run Service”.  You will have to start Services.MSC using RUN AS ADMIN.

Personally, my need is reverse of yours. I need/want to start Office applications in separate processes. My problem has been when I open too many files in the same process and one of them locks up, I lost unsaved changes in all of the files.  As they say, YMMV ...

I have not encountered the issue of files being opened in separate processess.  Is it possible that this is an automated "feature" that is invoked when the files require too many Windows resources, specifically RAM, Windows automagically starts a new process?  Open Task Manager, make note of the RAM in use as you open the files one at a time.

I do not recall seeing explicit mention of which "bit" version of Office you have installed. The default is 32-Bit. You could try installing 64-bit.  It allows the applications to use more of the available RAM for a single process. Most current PCs have 64bit Windows installed.

@ RAM Support increased 32bit Excel 2013-2016https://www.excelguru.ca/blog/2016/05/10/32-bit-excel-memory-limit-increase/****Excel 2016 build 16.0.6**** ways to boot into Windows 10 Safe Mode

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10

Hi Gloria,

Personally, in all the scenarios listed in my initial posts, I would like the files to open in a single Excel instance. Always, no exception. In my 10 years of working with Excel, working on up to 10 spreadsheets simultaneously, writing VBA automation solutions, etc. I am yet to come across a scenario in which I'd want multiple instances. 

However, I understand my needs might be different to those of other users, therefore I believe an option to have single or multiple instances is required. By option, I of course mean a checkbox, toggle button, etc. in Excel's settings where users will be able to select their desired mode and not the current unpredictable behavior.

The topic of choice needed here has been covered in great detail and up-voted by hundreds of users in this Excel UserVoice post. The post is about SDI vs. MDI, but the issue of multiple vs. single instance is very much related and it comes up frequently in the 650+ comments - have a read through them, it's a good lecture, and maybe then you can motivate someone at MS to finally address the issue.

Thanks,

J.

Hi J,

Thank for your reply.

Our main priority is to understand the use-case where multiple or one instance of Excel is needed, so that we can provide our findings and involve more resources to investigate this behavior.

Can you please let us know in what scenario you would like Excel to open in one instance, and another where you would like Excel to open multiple instances?

Best Regards,

Gloria

Sorry, I didn't know you were awaiting action from my side. Should have told me, I would have acted much sooner.

Gloria, I confirm - the same issue has been affecting other users in my organization. Their Office build is the same as mine. I just went over to two random colleagues and asked them to test the opening of Outlook attachments as well as opening multiple files from a folder simultaneously, both scenarios described in great detail above - the behavior is exactly like the one I am seeing on my machine.

I am sorry, but out of respect for my colleagues' time and privacy, providing gifs and screenshots from their machines is at this moment out of the question, you are going to have to take my word for it.

Is there anything else you need from me?

J.