Windows 10: double clicking on Excel and Word Icons in task bar doesn't open the program

When I double click on the Excel and Word icon on my taskbar nothing happens. I have to right click on icon and then run as administrator. This doesn't happen with any of my other icons on my taskbar.

:)

 

Excel Icon on taskbar does not open file, only program


well I always called it the quick-launch bar, but now win 10 seems to call it the task bar (as in, if you right click on one of those square-thingees on the win10 desktop, it gives you an option to "pin to taskbar". Whoever named it what, it is the space between Cortana input space on the bottom left of the traditional desktop and the bottom right where time, date, internet icons are located on the bottom right corner. I usually have about 10 icons in this launch/task area which represent my most-used programs, including IE, task manager, notepad, and Excel. Excel is the only one that has what simrick called jumplists, i.e. if you right click the Excel Icon, you see a list of the most recent files that have been opened or used regularly. Word also works
that way. Prior to 10 days ago, clicking a jump-list filename actually opened the file, but that no longer works. Worse, if I go to the folder where the file is and double-click to open, all I get is an error message "There was a problem sending the command to the program". If I right-click on the filename and select open, it does not open the file, only Excel.
Wayne

 

Windows 10 Task bar Icon for Word and/or Excel, right click to show recent files.

Windows 10 Task bar Icon for Word and/or Excel, right click to show recent or pinned files. How do I get the recent files to list?

I have looked at all the properties as well as windows 10 options for both programs and I can only affect the recent files once the program is opened.

For example: In Windows 8 you can right click the Word icon and a list of recent files shows up, usually up to 8 files. You can then select specific files to be pinned. The pinned files are there but never any recent files.

How do I change this or is this a feature that is gone?

I have Microsoft 365 Home. I have updated both Windows 10 and my Microsoft suite applications.

Thanks =)

 

Excel Icon on taskbar does not open file, only program

Hi Wynona, thanks for dropping in.

Wayne has the Excel shortcut pinned to the taskbar. When he right-clicks that icon, the jump list of recent files shows above the icon. Usually, you can click one of those recent files, and Excel will open that file. His problem is, it's not working like that and only opens Excel the program - then he has to go through the extra steps of opening the file. We've tried unpinning - re-pinning, clearing out the MRUs, and repairing Office (both local and online repair). Nothing has worked.

He did have one corrupt spreadsheet, which he has recovered into a new spreadsheet, and I'm wondering if that had anything to do with it? If so, is there a way to remedy now that the corrupted spreadsheet is gone? (It is gone now, right Wayne?)