Windows 10: Excel Icon on taskbar does not open file, only program

I've been running Windows 10 since last August, after upgrading from Win 8.1 on my Asus laptop.
I use the taskbar (launchbar?) to start my favourite programs, such as Excel, and some 8-10 files
are stacked on the icon so I can right-click the icon and select/open my desired file.

That was until approximately 10 days ago, when clicking on a file name only opened Excel, and I have to
do a file/open within Excel to get the file I want open. Other programs that are also on the bar e.g. my PDF program, still opens the file name I click on.

Any suggestions?

Wayne

:)

 

Opening Recent files from the taskbar

When I attempt to open a recent file from the Excel program icon on the taskbar it will open a blank excel screen without the recent file appearing. It does give me a error message..."There was a problem sending the command to the program."

In the prior OS 8 it would appear. Please advise.

 

Excel 2010 taskbar icons not displaying properly in Windows 10 taskbar (when an .xlsx and a .xlsm are open at the same time)

Hello. When I open a normal Excel file (.xlsx) and a macro-enabled Excel file (.xlsm) at the same time, only a single Excel icon is displayed in the Windows 10 taskbar. The second file is effectively hidden and the only way to view it is to know it is
open 'in the background' and use View > Arrange All in order to display the two workbooks in a single window. This is very frustrating as I often switch between different Excel files to copy and paste data for example, by using the separate taskbar icons.
Note that I've tried two methods of resolving this: 1/ In the Win 10 Taskbar Right Click > Taskbar Properties > Never Combine Taskbar Buttons, and 2/ In Excel (2010) File > Options > Advanced >Display > Show all Windows in the Taskbar. This seems to have worked
for other Office docs (Word, PPT) and also works if two normal Excel file (.xlsx) are open. The only instance were I see this bug (and it is repeatable) is when I open a normal Excel file (.xlsx) and a macro-enabled Excel file (.xlsm) at the same time. Windows
10 doesn't seem to be able to make the connection that these are two Excel files for the purposes of the Taskbar preferences. Windows 7 did not have this problem. Thanks for any help!

 

Hi Wayne,
You haven't moved or renamed these Excel files, have you?
Does the same problem also happen with Word?
You could try repairing your office installation.
Right-click on the Start Button and select Control Panel>Programs and Features; wait for the list of installed programs to populate, then highlight Microsoft Office; click CHANGE up above the window, then REPAIR. You may have 2 repair options; if so, try the local one first and see if that does the trick.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks for reading...
1- no haven't renamed any excel files or moved them, I'd get a msg that the file couldn't be found, all that I get is "silence",
that is excel opens but the file doesn't- I then within excel do an alt-F, get a list of recent files, and double click the file I want
and it then opens, no problem.
2- I don't have Word on the launch bar, since I use it seldom- I do have my PDF reader on the bar, and the individual files
all open just fine.
3- I had used that repair idea on another program a while ago, so tried that, but that changed nothing.
Thanks, appreciate your help
Wayne

 

That's odd. Have you tried unpinning Excel, rebooting and then re-pinning it back to the taskbar?

Here's something you could try:
Open Ccleaner, in the Cleaner window that opens, in the Windows Tab, uncheck everything except Taskbar Jump Lists. Then go to the second tab Applications, and unselect everything. Then click Analyse, then Run Cleaner.

See if that doesn't help. Of course, you'll have to open all your most-used Excel files once more, to repopulate the MRU list.

 

thanks. that reminded me to update ccleaner too! as you said, I'd have to re-populate my excel files
on the re-installed taskbar icon, however that's the only result. what is strange is that after linking excel back to the taskbar,
the same files that were associated with that icon are back, even without running any of them. is that normal?

I had suspected maybe a recent win10 update, which seemed to coincided with some strange messages, like my "video drivers stopped responding"- it causes a pause in spreadsheet function, then continues processing.
Wayne

 

Well, I thought that those all fell under the "jump lists" category, but perhaps you could try going to the Applications tab and selecting the box for Office, and clearing out things that way.

So, you ran Ccleaner, re-pinned Excel to the taskbar, right-clicked the Excel icon, selected a file, and it still only opened up Excel and not that particular file? Try again - unpin, run Ccleaner with the Office box selected under Applications, reboot, re-pin Excel, and see if any jump list shows when right-clicking.

Very strange. What version Office are you using? Can you reproduce the same problem with Word? I know you don't use that much, but it would be interesting to know if it's an "Office" thing, or an "Excel" thing.

 

oh woe is me (lol). so per your last note:
1- I unpinned Excel, ran ccleaner, it analyzed and found no data to clean, zero.
I re-pinned Excel and it still came up with a list of 7 files pinned, so I unpinned them again, then also removed all other file links and unpinned Excel. Then I re-ran ccleaner again and it listed 3 files, 1.4 kb but it "cleaned" 2kb (maybe MSoft can't count). The file links- what u called jumplists are all gone but then reran Excel again and it gave me a blank screen, but with the name of a corrupted file (this occurred yesterday only, and I didn't mention it because the problem you have been working on occurred 10 days ago. I have posted the corrupt file issue in a MS community blog yesterday, if of interest, I can give details.)
I closed this Excel window, and double clicked an Excel file that I know is good; I got an error message "There was a problem sending the command to the program". But, I re-selected the same file, right-clicked and selected "Open" and the file opens fine and can be used. All my other excel files can be opened this way.

2- I pinned Word to the taskbar, opened a file through browsing, and there was no problem. I then checked Word on the taskbar, saw the same file I just opened in the jumplist, clicked on that and it opened the file no problem. So it seems to be only and Excel issue.
3- I am using Office 2013 which I purchased last summer, at the same time as my Asus laptop.

Wayne

 

And you've done the "repair" to Office - both local and online repair options?
Yes, I would be interested in the link to the MS community post.
Based on what you've given me here, I don't think it's related to W10, but I could be mistaken. I'll be curious to see what comes up in the other thread.

 

I did the repair to Office" using 1-Control panel/right clicking on Office 2013 and selecting "repair", which ran for a minute or two
and gave a completed message, and 2-using ccleaner as directed today.
I will try to find the MS community posting and will send you a link.
Thanks, Wayne

 

I think there are two repair options - one is a local repair and one is an online repair, which is almost like a full reinstall, and needs to be reactivated when it's completed. You highlight Office in Programs and Features>Installed Programs, then click on CHANGE above the box, and you get the repair, then 2 repair options. Probably won't make any difference, but may be worth a shot.

 

sorry, missed the on-line part- running that now
Wayne

 

Okay - no problem. Will hope that helps!

 

good news bad news...
g-The update is finished
g-my customized ribbon is still intact
g- i can run my regular worksheets no problem
b- i pinned excel to the taskbar, clicking on the icon opens excel
b- after opening the first file through browsing, I closed and clicked the file on the jumplist, nada except a blank excel worksheet. I have to alt-F to get the open dialog, same as it was before the update.
b- I still can't double-click a file in explorer, it still gives me "There was a problem sending the command to the program"

In other words, not much has changed. Next?
Appreciate the effort you are putting in, I'll go back to trying to find my post in MS community about the corrupt file in meantime.
By the way, I'm retired, which is why I'm here most of the time.
Wayne