Windows 10: [SOLVED] No preview only of Excel files in Explorer, Office 201x

Sorry for a somewhat long post, but it does tell a story.

Like many I had this problem that suddenly since several months my Excel spreadsheets would suddenly not show in Explorer preview and instead I received in the preview an error message "this file can't be shown in preview". All probably happened after some of the many updates.

Like many of you I tried everything from registry keys to office repair to running the icacls string.
Like so many, no go, nothing worked in matters Excel files but everything was correct.

I did notice however when I was clicking on a spreadsheet file in Explorer that it took about 2 to 3 seconds and then the above-mentioned error message appeared unlike other office file i.e. docx, pdf etc., which show preview in a fraction of a second.

So going to all possible locations, settings, reg entries, group policies et al I came eventually to a frustrating "been there done that" dead end.

I kind of "growling" accepted it as I had learned over time that Microsoft Windows is very good in introducing new bugs with every bug fix. Maybe some future bug fix will address the issue and as a gift I will get a few other bugs.

Apparently unrelated to all there was however one app, xnview, which I use for viewing and basic processing of images, which for some reason PNG files would not open with this app despite so doing for a long time. So I went into PC settings > default apps to check as expected that the photo viewer default was xnview.

Scrolling a little down there are three menus:
- choose default apps by file type
- choose default apps by protocol
- set defaults by app

I first went into the "choose default apps by file type" and corrected the png association for my xnview app which for unknown reasons was no longer associated with xnview and had a grey "set default" icon.

Looking around in there I looked at all the Excel file associations and found that with few exceptions all of them were associated with Excel. There was one "xlsx_auto_file" that was not associated with Excel but I could not choose Excel as default. It simply said: "There is no installed app for this type of file or protocol, look for a nap in the Microsoft store"
Yeah right....

Out of curiosity I went to the next menu "choose default apps by protocol". Not much to do there.

So I might as well have a look at the last one "set defaults by app". There are all major apps, but not all are listed.
I click on Excel and up came a button "manage".
Up came a list "file type and protocol associations. I thought that's the same old same old just like before in the preceding two options. For the heck of it I checked XLSX files and all were associated with Excel.
BUT...
The last entry at the bottom of all. XL.. file types was an entry "MS Excel Url:Excel Protocol" that was unchecked and offered "choose default". When I clicked on it it gave me 2 options aside from looking in the Microsoft store: Excel and Libreoffice (I have installed as well)

Thereafter I checked some Excel files in Explorer.
Drumroll....
Preview for all Excel files in Explorer works again! Snappy and fast!

The likely culprit was once again a Windows "update" which resets for unknown reasons some settings. This happens notoriously whenever there are cumulative updates, e.g. certain group settings which notoriously appeared reset. For example "do not include drivers with Windows updates".

So remember this, this is apparently where the culprit lies after you have tried like me everything else!
(I only spent about cumulative over 13 hours in the last several months trying to resolve this issue...)

LMK!


Enterprise* Windows 10 20H2 (19042.928)
* recently upped from Pro

:)

 

[SOLVED] No preview only of Excel files in Explorer, Office 201x

Sorry for a somewhat long post, but it does tell a story.

Like many I had this problem that suddenly since several months my Excel spreadsheets would suddenly not show in Explorer preview and instead I received in the preview an error message "this file can't be shown in preview". All probably happened after some of the many updates.

Like many of you I tried everything from registry keys to office repair to running the icacls string.
Like so many, no go, nothing worked in matters Excel files but everything was correct.

I did notice however when I was clicking on a spreadsheet file in Explorer that it took about 2 to 3 seconds and then the above-mentioned error message appeared unlike other office file i.e. docx, pdf etc., which show preview in a fraction of a second.

So going to all possible locations, settings, reg entries, group policies et al I came eventually to a frustrating "been there done that" dead end.

I kind of "growling" accepted it as I had learned over time that Microsoft Windows is very good in introducing new bugs with every bug fix. Maybe some future bug fix will address the issue and as a gift I will get a few other bugs.

Apparently unrelated to all there was however one app, xnview, which I use for viewing and basic processing of images, which for some reason PNG files would not open with this app despite so doing for a long time. So I went into PC settings > default apps to check as expected that the photo viewer default was xnview.

Scrolling a little down there are three menus:
- choose default apps by file type
- choose default apps by protocol
- set defaults by app

I first went into the "choose default apps by file type" and corrected the png association for my xnview app which for unknown reasons was no longer associated with xnview and had a grey "set default" icon.

Looking around in there I looked at all the Excel file associations and found that with few exceptions all of them were associated with Excel. There was one "xlsx_auto_file" that was not associated with Excel but I could not choose Excel as default. It simply said: "There is no installed app for this type of file or protocol, look for a nap in the Microsoft store"
Yeah right....

Out of curiosity I went to the next menu "choose default apps by protocol". Not much to do there.

So I might as well have a look at the last one "set defaults by app". There are all major apps, but not all are listed.
I click on Excel and up came a button "manage".
Up came a list "file type and protocol associations. I thought that's the same old same old just like before in the preceding two options. For the heck of it I checked XLSX files and all were associated with Excel.
BUT...
The last entry at the bottom of all. XL.. file types was an entry "MS – Excel Url:Excel Protocol" that was unchecked and offered "choose default". When I clicked on it it gave me 2 options aside from looking in the Microsoft store: Excel and Libreoffice (I have installed as well)

Thereafter I checked some Excel files in Explorer.
Drumroll....
Preview for all Excel files in Explorer works again! Snappy and fast!

The likely culprit was once again a Windows "update" which resets for unknown reasons some settings. This happens notoriously whenever there are cumulative updates, e.g. certain group settings which notoriously appeared reset. For example "do not include drivers with Windows updates".

So remember this, this is apparently where the culprit lies after you have tried like me everything else!
(I only spent about cumulative over 13 hours in the last several months trying to resolve this issue...)

LMK!


Enterprise* Windows 10 20H2 (19042.928)
* recently upped from Pro

 

Preview Pane in Explorer No Longer Working with Excel Files

System Parameters:

Windows 10 Pro, Version 1803 OS Build 17134.345 64 bit

Excel for Office 365 MOS (16.0.1129_20045) 32 bit

Issue:

Windows/Excel recently updated. Presumably, this was done to "fix" a problem (which reminds me of when I "fixed" my pet).

Now, when I look at a list of files in Windows Explorer, the "Preview" pane will no longer preview excel files; and if I leave the "Preview" pane open, the computer hangs.

Need help with making the preview function of explorer work again with excel files. Any takers?

 

excel file causes instability in "windows explorer"

When I open an excel file by double clicking on the name in windows explorer, the file opens OK but at the same

time, the explorer file list jumps up and down as it lists and de-lists the

excel temp file. It is very distracting. I can close the explorer window or

simply change to another folder. It occurs only on one of my computers and only on some excel files

It happens only with excel files and not with word or acrobat

Any suggestions where to look for the problem. We've reinstalled Office 10 and reset my windows profile. nothing helped so far.