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Problem: When excel windows are minimised, I can't see the file name, all I get is a rather unhelpful 'Microsoft Excel' proceeded by the file name.

I have the taskbar docked on the left, and have second monitor that I use about 50% of the time, but can't work out what is causing the problem, or a setting that I can change that will remove the appended software name at the beginning of the file.

Using Excel 2010 on Win 7 64 Bit

Screenshot:

Screenshot showing appended 'Microsoft Excel' to file name

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    The default behavior of Excel is to show Microsoft Excel - Document Name if there is one document open in that instance. If you open multiple documents in the same instance of Excel, the names in the taskbar should change to the document name only.
    – user201262
    Sep 24, 2013 at 4:10
  • I dont know if this has something to do with it but I normally can't open two windows next to each other they both use the same instance, but at the moment I am able to snap multiple excel windows side by side. Does this have something to do with why I can't see the doc title?
    – BiGXERO
    Sep 24, 2013 at 6:52
  • Yes. If each workbook is in a different instance of excel, it won't show file names Sep 24, 2013 at 8:11

3 Answers 3

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Fire up regedit and locate the folder:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\W0w6432Node\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Registration{90140000-0011-0000-0000-0000000FF1CE}

Inside is a key named "ExcelName"

I emptied the key (didn't delete it).

Note: this is not a FULL fix, the title bar now shows "- filename.xlsx" instead of "Microsoft Excel - filename.xlsx".

To me, this is a lot better than having to macro-enable all of my workbooks, especially if I need to share them with people who have macro security enabled on their workbooks (just a PITA really).

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Here is a quick workaround if you can use macros

Open excel. Hit ALT + F11 to open visual basic editor

On the left you should see VBAProject(PERSONAL.xlsb) which is your personal macro workbook.

Navigate to it, Microsoft Excel Objects, ThisWorkBook

In ThisWorkBook enter -

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
 Application.Caption = "XL"
End Sub

Save everything and now when you have only 1 workbook per instance, it will show "XL - workbookname"

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  1. Select the "File" ribbon
  2. Select the "Options" button
  3. Select the Advanced from the left-hand list
  4. Scroll down to the Display section
  5. UnCheck the Show all windows in the taskbar checkbox
  6. Do 1-5 again. Do "Check" this time.

I don't know, but somehow rechecking that box showed me filenames first on taskbar. Forget about headaching macros or regedits. :)

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