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I use MS Office Home & Business 2019 on Windows 10 PRO and my computer is quite fast (i7 6th gen processor, with 16gb RAM and ssd drive).

I have the following problem when opening Excel files (only when double clicking files from Windows Explorer):

  1. when I open the first file (from Windows Explorer) it opens fast, but only if there was previously no other Excel files open

  2. when I open the second file (from Windows Explorer) it takes up to 10 seconds for the file to open. It doesn't make a difference how large it is. But on the other hand, if I were to drag&drop the same file from Windows Explorer to the existing Excel it opens fast (or if I open it via Excel-->File-->Open)???

What could be the problem?

Things I have tried:

  • different computers
  • format hard drive + fresh Windows 10 + Office install
  • running Excel in safe mode

*I did not have this problem with 2010 in 2013 versions of Excel. The problem came with 365 version and than also with 2019 version.

Update: I recently upgraded to MS Office 365 (Small business) and the problem remains.

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  • Only Excel have this problem? Did you have any add-ins in Excel? Refer to this first: answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/…
    – Lee
    Jan 17, 2020 at 9:35
  • I have some add-ins, but none are active. So add-ins can't be the cause. Yes, I only have this problem with Excel. The link you posted: I already found this thread before a couple of weeks. And suggestions from there don't help.
    – TheMixy
    Jan 17, 2020 at 11:43
  • There are about a zillion reasons and workarounds for this problem to be found on the Internet. One consistent solution for Dell computers is to install the latest Realtek driver from the Dell website. Another one is to disable Cortana. If these don't work, the list of other solutions/workarounds is long...
    – harrymc
    Dec 29, 2020 at 9:32
  • Are you opening files on local disk or on network shares? Does it happen even with with identical files, one the exact copy of the other? Do the files contain any external references? Does it happen only with certain files or even with a new blank file you just saved for testing purposes?
    – simlev
    Dec 29, 2020 at 10:08
  • 1
    I'm far from spamming, but your attitude is not very appealing. This problem with Excel has been known now for almost a decade. There are about a dozen workarounds that some people claim have solved the problem for them. One of them is in your post, not opening from Explorer, and I added a couple more that were mentioned very frequently. For most people, once it happens this is unavoidable forever. All we can do for you is list all these workarounds in the hope that one will work, but you don't seem interested. We're not Microsoft and cannot fix Office.
    – harrymc
    Dec 29, 2020 at 10:55

4 Answers 4

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Frankly speaking, I don't believe that this long-running problem has a solution, because of the special architecture of Excel.

This problem has been known by now for about a decade, and many people have claimed to have found various solutions that worked for them. I have tried several of these solutions, and none has worked for me.

Then I started tracing the operation of Excel when starting.

On the visual level, I have observed that if Excel is minimized, then calling a second spreadsheet will cause the first to be restored and displayed, and only then does the second one appear in front. Even funnier, when multiple spreadsheets are minimized, opening a new one will cause the last-called to be displayed, and only then does the newly-called one appear in front.

On the process level, this is even stranger. There is always only one process called EXCEL.EXE. When starting a new spreadsheet, we see the following:

  • A new EXCEL.EXE appears for the new spreadsheet
  • A short wait occurs
  • The last spreadsheet appears, immediately followed by the new one
  • The new EXCEL.EXE terminates itself, leaving only the original EXCEL.EXE running and displaying both spreadsheets by itself.

This reminded me of the SDI and MDI evolutions of Office, when Office programs once had two modes of running:

  • SDI (single-document interface) - Each document had its own program instance, each showing as a separate entry on the taskbar
  • MDI (multiple-document interface) - Only one instance of the program was running, showing one entry only in the taskbar.

There used to be an option in each Office program called "Show all windows in the taskbar" that controlled whether Office programs started in SDI or MDI mode. However, this option was removed in Office 2013.

The current Office mode is MDI, where for all the displayed documents there is only one instance of the program. However, they did manage to have a separate entry on the taskbar for each document.

When some Microsoft Office architect made this decision for Office 2013, Word apparently had better developers, because newly-opened Word documents appear instantly, even though there is only one winword.exe instance. Excel developers apparently adopted a more cumbersome mode of communication between Excel instances, so if Excel is already running, the new Excel instance takes much longer to communicate with the older instance, letting it know that it has a new spreadsheet to open and display.

Solution: There is none. The only "solution" I can offer is to go back to a version prior to Excel 2013, which is certainly no solution at all. Microsoft makes its decisions, and we are obliged to follow.

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  • Well, that is unfortunate. I've been using Excel for work for almost 20 years now and it use to my favourite office software… Thank you for a detailed explanation of the problem.
    – TheMixy
    Jan 3, 2021 at 10:11
  • The delay of 10 seconds is a bit extreme. On my computer this is about 3 seconds, so quite acceptable, but perhaps my computer is faster.
    – harrymc
    Jan 3, 2021 at 11:28
  • Mostly it's up to 3 seconds for me to, but sometimes it can go to 10 or even more...
    – TheMixy
    Jan 4, 2021 at 6:26
1

This solution fixed the problem for me:

In Registry Editor (Start >> regedit) set the value for the following keys to [open("%1" /ou "%u")]:

  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.CSV\shell\Open\ddeexec
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec

Here is a screenshot of one of the registry settings:

Registry Editor Screenshot

0

This is not a solution to the problem, but it hopefully helps you or others in the way there.

Since you didn't post any link, I understand you did not find any related post. I will provide here a few of what I found (even if not describing exactly the same problem, or software versions, they might help), extracting what is most relevant in some cases. I will wait for your feedback.

  1. Opening Excel 2016 files takes around 30 seconds

    "I used Revo and completely uninstalled Office and all traces of it. I did a full reinstall (as the repair would not complete) and that solved the problem"

    "The Audio driver that comes preloaded on these PCs are what seems to be the source of it"

  2. A Possible Fix For The Excel Slow File Opening Bug

    Do you have a Realtek sound card?

  3. What To Do When Excel Opens... Very... Slowly...

    enter image description here

    Turn off Cortana

    Kill sysmon

  4. Excel files won't open since upgrade to Excel 2016 (can't double click to open)

  5. How To: Fix the Excel File Slow-to-Open Bug in Windows 10

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Had the same annoying problem in Excel 2021 (after just recently upgrading from 2013, where this problem was absent). When opening files from file explorer or command line/scripts, and Excel is already open, there is a significant delay before the file finishes open (about 3s, sometimes up to 10s). A less than ideal workaround is to minimize Excel, then the file becomes ready immediately, and then go back.

However a permanent solution is to open Excel in a new instance and process by using the excel.exe startup switch /x and optionally the /e switch to skip the startup screen. If opening excel files in a script or by the command line you can simply use the following syntax (assuming standard installation path):

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE" /e /x "<FilePath>"

To open Excel in a new process from File Explorer you have to edit registry shell Open commands for all Excel file extensions you want to use. For the .xlsx extension the registry setting is located at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command, for .xlsm extension at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12\shell\Open\command and for .csv at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.CSV\shell\Open\command.

To the default value just add /xand optionally /e:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE" /e /x "%1"

Running Excel workbooks in separate processes has some limitations, perhaps most importantly that you cannot Copy and Paste Special between different workbooks.

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