Excel failed to start correctly last time

[fistral13]

? Excel failed to start correctly last time. Starting Excel in safe mode will help you correct or isolate a startup problem in order to successfully start the program. Some functionality may be disabled in this mode.

Do you want to start Excel in safe mode?

Options are "Yes" or " "No"

If one selects "Yes" then a blank Excel worksheet comes up in safe mode.
Opening a recent worksheet and saving it, or saving it under another name, does not overcome the startup problem.


If one selects "No" then another window appears:

>> Microsoft Excel has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
>> If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost.
>> Check Box which gives option to Restart Microsoft Excel.
>> Please tell Microsoft about this problem.
>> We have created an error report that you can send to help us improve
>> Microsoft Excel.
>> We will treat this report as confidential and annonymous.
>> To see what data this error report contains CLICK HERE link
>> Three options are "Debug", "Send Error Report" and "Don't Send".

After sending the error report, one gets the original error message again.

 

[RoryA]

Try starting in Safe mode, unchecking all installed add-ins in the Tools-addins menu, then close and restart Excel normally and see if you still get the error. If so, check both your XLSTART directories and move any files out of them temporarily.

 

[fistral13]

Only one add-in was Internet Assistant VBA. Unchecked that one. Starting Excel normally brought that add-in back again. XLSTART directories were empty. What next please?

 

[RoryA]

Try closing Excel, locate the Addin in the Addins directory (usually C:\documents and settings\username\application data\microsoft\addins) and move it to another folder, then restart Excel and see if you still have problems.

 

[fistral13]

Located all Addin Directories and moved them to ..\Addin Store. On trying to open Excel, the system reconfigures Excel putting back the Addin Directory, all of which had been empty.

 

[RoryA]

OK, that pretty much only leaves the toolbars or a COM or automation add-in problem. For the toolbars:
Locate the Excelnn.xlb file (where nn is the version number, so Excel11.xlb for Excel 2003) in C:\documents and settings\username\application data\microsoft\excel and rename it to something else or remove it (with Excel closed) then restart Excel.

 

[fistral13]

I have searched the whole of partition D: (My operative partition) and failed to find any excel*.xlb file.
However, I did find Excel10.xlb in partition C:\documents and settings\username\application data\microsoft\excel so I sent that file to the recycle bin.
Excel still not starting.
Any more ideas?

 

[RoryA]

With Excel closed, press the Windows Start button, select Run, and enter:

regedit

and press Enter. You should see an explorer like window. Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Excel\Options
in the left hand pane and in the right hand pane you should see one or more entries called OPEN, OPEN1, OPEN2 etc. Delete them (need to select each one and press Delete) and then restart Excel. This will ensure no standard add-ins load.
If that doesn't work, then I suggest you follw the steps in this article.

 

[fistral13]

regedit did not cure the problem, so I started to follow the steps in the Startup Problems article.
Excel Add-ins step did not provide a solution.
Turning to Com Addins, I opened Excel in safe mode, and right clicked on the Standard commandbar. The Customize option was greyed out. On the Formatting commandbar the same thing happened.
Being unable to proceed down that path, I checked the registry, but there was no Addins subdirectory in Excel.
I have no workbooks that load at startup.
I have searched again the whole of partition D: (My operative partition) and failed to find any excel*.xlb file.

Excel files open OK when double-clicking them in Explorer.
Having opened the workbook from Desktop, I right clicked on "Customize", but found no "COM Addins" entry within the "Commands" tab.

I reregistered Excel with Windows, but after that Excel would not open from my Microsoft Office Toolbar, or from EXCEL.EXE in my ..\Office10 subdirectory.

I put a shortcut to an Excel file on my Desktop, and the file opened OK from there.

So the good news is that I can open *.xls files from Windows Explorer, and work on them with Excel NOT in safe mode.

From the "Understanding Excel" point of view I would still like to get to the root of the original failure problem.

 

[fistral13]

After opening an Excel file from my Desktop, I right clicked on the Standard toolbar and selected "Customize". There was no "COM Addins" entry within the Commands tab.