XLSX file won't open when clicked

[MikeyChris]

I just installed Office 2013 over Office 2010 (not my intent, but that's another issue). Most things seem to work well, but Excel 2013 won't start when clicking a file or shortcut to a file. I get a message that MICROSOFT EXCEL HAS STOPPED WORKING, trying to recover data, then



The weird thing is if I open Excel 2013, and then open the same file, it works fine. I have deleted files & shorcuts and replaced them with files saved in Excel 2013, no luck.

Also, holding CONTROL and clicking the Excel exe file, does not start it in safe mode, I get the same error message (not working...).

The smae shortcuts/files work fine in Excel 2010.

Any ideas?

[BobBridges]

If I had that problem, and couldn't find someone here to tell me authoritatively what's wrong, my guess would be that Excel 2013 works ok (as evidenced by the fact that it's opening documents just fine), but that Windows still has Excel 2010 in its associations. When you get Excel 2013 to open a file, you see, you know that Excel 2013 is doing it. When you double-click on an Excel document in Windows, Windows looks to see what app should open it. Sounds like maybe—this is just an hypothesis—that Windows is asking Excel 2010 to open it, and running into a problem.

But while I think I'm good inside Excel, I get kind of vague when I have to figure out how Excel is interacting with Windows. Don't believe my answer until someone else here agrees with me.

[CGM3]

Mikey, use Windows Explorer to find one of your Excel files and right click it, which should bring up a menu; choose "Open with..." to find which (if any) app is currently associated with that file type. If it differentiates between Excel 2010 and Excel 2013, you should be able to set the latter as the new "go to" program.

[MikeyChris]

Hi Bob,

Thanx for the reply.

Originally Posted by BobBridges

If I had that problem, and couldn't find someone here to tell me authoritatively what's wrong, my guess would be that Excel 2013 works ok (as evidenced by the fact that it's opening documents just fine), but that Windows still has Excel 2010 in its associations. When you get Excel 2013 to open a file, you see, you know that Excel 2013 is doing it. When you double-click on an Excel document in Windows, Windows looks to see what app should open it. Sounds like maybe—this is just an hypothesis—that Windows is asking Excel 2010 to open it, and running into a problem.

But while I think I'm good inside Excel, I get kind of vague when I have to figure out how Excel is interacting with Windows. Don't believe my answer until someone else here agrees with me.

I too thought perhaps it was a file association issue. However, there is one thing I may not have mentioned in my first post, that is Excel 2013 does TRY to open (you see the splash screen) but almost immediately you get a mesage saying "Excel is not working etc."

See my next post to CGM3 for more on this file association thing. Thanx again.

[MikeyChris]

Originally Posted by CGM3

Mikey, use Windows Explorer to find one of your Excel files and right click it, which should bring up a menu; choose "Open with..." to find which (if any) app is currently associated with that file type. If it differentiates between Excel 2010 and Excel 2013, you should be able to set the latter as the new "go to" program.

Hello CGM3 (Computer Generated Man, version 3?)
Thanx for the reply. I have already tried to change the file association from Excel 2013 back to Excel 2010, but when I browse to Excel.EXE (2010) and click save, there is a video flash on the screen (like it's trying to add Excel 2010 to the list and then erases it), and only Excel 2013 is shown. To clarify, I right clicked an xlxs file, clicked "open with" and then tried to select Excel 2010. Like so many products these days, I guess Excel 2013 thinks it's the only thing suitable to use, and someone cancels the request for changing the association to an older version. Interestingly, when i try the same procedure with an XLS file, I get the same results. It seems like Microsoft has hardwired something to only allow association with the latest executable.

I suspect my only cure is to uninstall all the old stuff and reinstall 2013. I had intended to do that in the first place, thinking that when I was downloading Office 2013 I could install it later. In actuality, the file I downloaded was setting up Office 2013.

I have been wanting to purge my computer and do a clean install of everything, and I guess this is as good a reason as any.

[excelledsoftware]

Originally Posted by MikeyChris

Hello CGM3 (Computer Generated Man, version 3?)
Thanx for the reply. I have already tried to change the file association from Excel 2013 back to Excel 2010, but when I browse to Excel.EXE (2010) and click save, there is a video flash on the screen (like it's trying to add Excel 2010 to the list and then erases it), and only Excel 2013 is shown. To clarify, I right clicked an xlxs file, clicked "open with" and then tried to select Excel 2010. Like so many products these days, I guess Excel 2013 thinks it's the only thing suitable to use, and someone cancels the request for changing the association to an older version. Interestingly, when i try the same procedure with an XLS file, I get the same results. It seems like Microsoft has hardwired something to only allow association with the latest executable.

I suspect my only cure is to uninstall all the old stuff and reinstall 2013. I had intended to do that in the first place, thinking that when I was downloading Office 2013 I could install it later. In actuality, the file I downloaded was setting up Office 2013.

I have been wanting to purge my computer and do a clean install of everything, and I guess this is as good a reason as any.

There are 2 things I can think of. 1 thing you may want to try is the detect and repair option in your help menu. I know these normally don't work but it's worth a try. The other thing that is kind of concerning is you could have some type of malware in your Excel program that is running the code everytime you run excel that way. You definitly want to do a virus scan and see if anything is found.

[MikeyChris]

Originally Posted by excelledsoftware

There are 2 things I can think of. 1 thing you may want to try is the detect and repair option in your help menu. I know these normally don't work but it's worth a try. The other thing that is kind of concerning is you could have some type of malware in your Excel program that is running the code everytime you run excel that way. You definitly want to do a virus scan and see if anything is found.

Thanx for the tips. MSE scanned last night with no malware detected, but I will scan with Malewarebyte today as well.

As for repairing Excel, I am lost. In 2013 I don't see a help menu (maybe I'm looking at it and not seeing it). There is a "?" in upper right that leads to online help, but clicking the FILE tab as in previous versions does not show any help options - in fact it took a while to find ABOUT, it's under ACCOUNT.

Also, when I look in Control Panel PROGRAMS there are no Office 2013 programs there (2010 programs are there). Obviously somethings have changes. Any ideas?
Thanx.

[MikeyChris]

While Excel 2013 continues to lockup if I click on a shortcut to an xlsx file or the file itself (only way to close Excel after that is to log out and back in, Task Manager won't even close it), I find that if I open Excel in a window, then drag & drop the file or shortcut into that window, it opens the file fine. Does this shed any light on it to you gurus out there?

BTW, I have done complete (and LONG) MSE and Malewarebyte scans and found no malware. All other Office Pro 2013 apps seem to be fine. I know I will eventually uninstall everything and start over, but right now I need access to some files and can't risk being several days withput them.

Thanx.

[excelledsoftware]

Originally Posted by MikeyChris

Thanx for the tips. MSE scanned last night with no malware detected, but I will scan with Malewarebyte today as well.

As for repairing Excel, I am lost. In 2013 I don't see a help menu (maybe I'm looking at it and not seeing it). There is a "?" in upper right that leads to online help, but clicking the FILE tab as in previous versions does not show any help options - in fact it took a while to find ABOUT, it's under ACCOUNT.

Also, when I look in Control Panel PROGRAMS there are no Office 2013 programs there (2010 programs are there). Obviously somethings have changes. Any ideas?
Thanx.

It's good that you have done your scans hopefully you have conducted a malwarebytes scan with the most updated database while computer is in safe mode. Just to be sure.

[MikeyChris]

Thanx for reminding me to scan in SAFE mode. I will do that (I was not in safe mode when I scanned). I finally did find OFFICE 2013 in PROGRAMS & FEATURES and did a repair (I was expecting to see each APP listed, but there was only OFFICE 2013). There was no difference after the repair.

Thanx again for the help.