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

Then you probably know way, way more than I do about Excel. I've checked the options in 2016 and don't find anything indicating any sort of shortcuts.

Just to be sure we're on the same page:
1. When you right click on the Excel icon in the Task Bar, you see your various Excel files.
2. When you click on one of these files, it won't open at all.
3. You know the file you want exists on your computer.
4. The above works as it should in Word.

Have you considered reinstalling Office 2013?

 

To Wynona
re Malwarebytes, the version # bring shown is 2.1.6.1022 (there is apparently a new version available but haven't downloaded.
re Office, it is a stand-alone purchase from when I upgraded my laptop to the Asus I am using ( I don't believe
in storing the software I own on someone else's computer, applies to OneDrive, etc.)

 

So here's the process I go through to open the file I want:
I right-click on the excel icon in the launch/task bar;
that brings up a "jumplist" of pinned or most recently used files;
I click on the filename I want (I could right-click on the filename and select open) both bring up a blank excel screen, no file;
I then click on File on the menu line, and that opens a new window, defaulted to OPEN, with a list of recent files;
I single-click on the file I want and it opens then.
Remember, there are two other ways that don't work;
going to the folder where the file resides and double-clicking on it
in that same folder selecting the file and right-clicking it and selecting open;
Both of these two give me an error message "There was a problem sending the command to the program"

Wayne

 

ps re my knowledge, not sure about that, mine is from my keep-it-simple-s approach to things and I try not
to take risks with something unless I wrote it and know how to fix it ( and I didn't and don't want to (lol)). I can offer thoughts
about something like this, but seldom have knowledge about the fixes.

Wayne

 

I was preparing a reply to your post just above this one, but cancelled it, since you give more info in this one. I mainly scanned the thread between you and Simrick before and missed some pertinent information.

At this point, the only advice I can give is to reinstall Office 2013, because I don't see anything else working. It's my opinion that for some reason, Excel has been corrupted.

 

I tend to agree with you, except I re-installed yesterday, using the "change" option under Uninstall programs in Control Panel.
That gives two options, local or online, and I first did local, which did not change this problem, then yesterday did online,
which goes through quite a process, including asking me for the key and my account. (I don't have a disc, only the key-card,
because it was "pre-installed" on the computer

Wayne

 

Which version do you have?

 

My Office version is Home and Student 2013, automatically updated thru Win 10. Version # is 15.0.4787.1002

Wayne

 

Hi Wayne,
So, Wynona and I have discussed this at length, and have come to this conclusion:

Office2013 only ever came with a keycard, no matter where you bought it from. If not installed by your system manufacturer, then you have to go online to install it. I think it makes no difference if ASUS or any other system MFG installed it - I am pretty sure on that: Keycode only starting with O2013.

I recall installing O2013 on a system for someone. I wanted them to have a backup of the install media, so instead of installing it online, I clicked a link that said "other" for installation, or after I clicked "show keycode" in the account, I then had the option to download the ISO for installation offline.

If you can, grab the ISO, burn to disk, completely uninstall Office, reboot, clear out registry of all Office entries using Ccleaner, reboot again, and reinstall completely. That's what I would do. But first, make sure that corrupted Excel file is completely gone from the system, and backup any custom ribbons you may have created.

office.microsoft.com

Sorry I can't give you step-by-steps with screenshots, but I am working from memory.

Failing that, a call to MS Office Support might be in order. It's obviously something to do with the Excel portion of the Office install itself, since Word works properly. Although I'm surprised that the online repair option didn't work - but perhaps something remained on the system that is messing things up. So, completely uninstalling/reinstalling may do the trick.

Sorry we couldn't be of more help. Please report back with your results.

 

To simrick and Wynona,
first thank you for the effort you both put into this. I was coming to a conclusion that I shud just move on from this,
but that's frustrating because I think software shud be less painful than what of this current bleep puts us through,
but I geuss that's what this era is about. I would appreciate "one" more thingi if you would look over the questions
below and send me ion the right direction.

1- I've heard of ISO before, I'm assuming that if I get it and get it burned to disk, then the disk becomes the installation
disk, correct?
2- My experience with ccleaner is that it doesn't do much of a job of cleaning the registry- on a software de-installation
that I did last year, after using ccleaner on the registry, I went back in and found over 100 entries of that program
still in the regiistry. I understand that one shouldn't play in the registry and that one shouldn't use a Registry cleaner,
but... is that all there is?
3- can you give me any info about how to backup the custom Excel Ribbon;
4- last, and unfortunately not close to being the least, I use a spreadsheet to monitor and control my diabetes.
It is a critical part of my daily routine, from 8 am until 11pm. My experience last year with uninstalling and re-installing
Excel is that we are talking many days. If you uninstall and then try to re-install, the uninstall "calls Home" and tells Dept A
and when I re-installed, it's probably DeptB verifying the keys, but DeptA and B don't communicate for a while and it doesn't
allow the re-install because the "key" still shows as installed.
This is exactly what I encountered last summer- I bought a Lenovo laptop w/Office installed (and got the key), and took
it back to Lenovo 4 days later (infested with adware, which automatically re-installed itself the next day). I uninstalled Office
before I took it back. Two hours later I was back home with a different laptop, but couldn't install Office for at least 3-4 days
until A and B confirm.

Any way you know where that gap can be "bypassed"

Again, thank you both for your help (oh, by the way, don't think I ever mentioned what I think caused the corrupt Excel file.
While I was editing a macro, I somehow created two with the same name. Excel (VBA) never flagged it as an error
when I exited VBA, but seemed sluggish as I tried to work in the spreadsheet. I tried going back into macro editing
but couldn't and Excel or whatever never allowed me to open the file again.

Cheers
Wayne

 

Yes. The ISO would be your installation media. You can burn it to disk, copy it to a stick/flash drive or just run the setup.exe from within the file.

Ccleaner is safe, and I have never had a problem with it. That said, it may leave some harmless bits behind. But, anything else, I don't use and am not familiar with, except to say that many, MANY others will bork your registry/system because they remove too much.

Customize the ribbon - Office Support

Yes - Links for the export and import custom ribbon are at the bottom of the list "What do you want to do?".

Well, I've never had any experience with that, because I never buy a system with Office installed. But I'm sure if you call MS when having a problem, they can resolve it while you're on the phone. Instructions can be found here:

Activate Office 365 Home, Personal, University, Office 2013, or Office 2016 - Office Support

I don't know Excel well enough for that. But, before you do anything, maybe you might post a new question in the Social.MSDN forum; see if an Excel specialist might be able to give you some things to try.

Excel VBA project corrupted?

It's worth a shot. Good luck. Sorry we couldn't be of more help.

 

You were very helpful, in fact....you pointed me in the direction of repairing Excel, which is where I found
the info for the "simple" way to extract the data form the corrupted file! So thanks for that, for the info in that last spiel
of mine, all good pointers.
All the best, happy trails to u,
Wayne

 

Thanks Wayne, and good luck. *Smile

 

Bringing this back from the dead.

I've had the same issue with Excel 2016 and Windows 10. I have the Excel icon pinned to my taskbar with frequent files pinned to the jumplist under it. I recently upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2016 via 365. Previously my files opened just fine from the jumplist, but now it simply opens a blank Excel window (read: when I click the pinned file it opens the Excel program, but it's simply blank and I'm required to manually browse to my file to open it). It behaves the same whether it's a pinned file or a recent file. I decided to fiddle with it and today I discovered something interesting. If I save my file to OneDrive I'm able to open it from the jumplist. However, saving the file locally on my PC it opens the blank Excel window. It seems like something is broken within the jumplist that prevents local files from opening correctly. There is a noticeable difference when Excel is starting up depending on if you're attempting to open a local file or an online file. I haven't found a fix yet, but figured I'd mention it here since this was the only real post I found that related to my issue.

 

Can you tell me how you create the jump list? If that could work, I want it, since I work with quite a few spreadsheets. So, I'd like to test it.