Windows 10: Some but not all Excel workbooks appear in taskbar.

As well as the above info about versions

Is it possible to list in steps what you do to get the issue

eg (mine is based on 2016 version)

1. Open Excel
2. Select workbook from right hand side to open it
3. Select File->New to open another workbook
4. Select workbook in right hand side to open it
repeat until 5 are open

 

Hello guys and welcome to TenForums.

Although I've never had occasion to have more than a couple of workbooks open at once, I have a resource I can plug into and hopefully get an answer for y'all.

I'll copy and past the OP's message to a a Microsoft private forum on Yammer; there are a couple of Excel authors there and one of them should be able to help.

 

I have got windows 10 pro, office 2010.
I go to the folder with my workbooks and open 1 by double clicking on it. I am making orders and checking invoices, so as I go along I open more and more workbooks. Weird thing is it doesn't happen all the time..even if I open the same workbooks..

 

Thank you, Wyn. *Smile

Thanks for posting that information, yfourie7443. I see your problem is intermittent. Was it that way upon first use or did you start having the problem after some use? Perhaps these Offices didn't install correctly.

Just to be sure, in Excel advanced options you have chosen 'Show all windows in taskbar'?

There is an Office repair. Your repair should be similar or within one of the programs somewhere. Press Windows key and X combo > That brings up the Power user context menu in the lower left of the desktop > Choose 'Programs and Features' > Right click Office > Choose 'change' > Office repair window appears. I suggest to perform a full repair.

This is the Office 2016 repair window.

 

So far, no reply from my private group. They may not be any smarter than I am. *Sad

 

Hello there, I tried following this advice but it did not help anyways. Hope someone could help. Thanks lot.

 

Hi,

I'm having the same issue as the original poster. It also began when I upgraded to Win10. It is also intermittent, sometimes it works correctly, othertimes one (or two) open Excel windows will not be displayed on the task bar. If I quit Excel and reopen the pages it will work correctly until sometime in the future when a page will go missing. It is often the same page, one that I tend to keep open most of the time for handy reference, that goes missing from the taskbar even though the file is still open. I can use alt-tab to switch to the missing window, or I can use the "Switch Windows" toolbar button (which always shows the complete list of open files).

Since it started with the Win 10 upgrade, and since Excel always shows a complete list of windows, it seems like it is a Win 10 taskbar bug to me.

Has anyone found any way to correct this issue?

 

We just upgraded out Windows 7 PCs at work and I have hit this same wall. I use Excel daily and usually have at least to separate windows/instances of Excel open at one time so I can copy information from on sheet to the next. The day after the upgrade I noticed all my taskbar items were once again grouped. So I had ungrouped them again. Once I did that it seemed ok until I needed to open another set of Excel files. Now they were grouped but no longer visible. The only way I could see all opened Excel files was to use the Task View button (which I hate and slows everything way down). I want to click once between the files not 2 or three times to switch files! Hovering over the file only shows the one file all others are open but hidden until clicking TASK VIEW.

So I made sure the Task Bar was set for NEVER again. Restarted all my programs and this worked for the rest of the day. Came back the next morning and we are back to only seeing one instance and the others requiring TASK VIEW to see/open them.

Task Bar settings are still set to NEVER combine. Excel's advanced options are set to SHOW ALL (tried unchecking/rechecking this to no avail). Have tried repairing Office (this is Office 2010) and rebooting the system again. Still hiding the additional excel files behind the one active file.

I always open my excel files by double clicking from their folders. Tried opening one then the other via OPEN files. Still the same issue.

I was able to finally get both my files open in two tabs/buttons on the task bar by opening one (w/double click) then right clicking on the button on the task bar and clicking Microsoft Excel 2010 then opening the other file in that new instance of Excel.

This is not a sustainable way for me to continue to do my job on a daily basis I will continue to try and find a fix as this is not only happening to me but other employees are experiencing similar issues and as we continue to finally transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10 I am going to get a ton of calls from co-workers to fix this problem on their PCs as well.

I don't have this issue with any other program (multiple browser windows, multiple Word Docs, Multiple anything except EXCEL). If this is simply a task bar issue, it appears to only be associated with Excel.

To sum up, none of the suggestions in the earlier posts work. Issue stems from a Windows 10 upgrade. Only appears to happen with Excel files. PC settings show that the task bar is set NEVER to combine. Excel doesn't combine rather hides the other open files.

 

This sounds silly but I found a solution in another forum. Even if the "show all windows in task bar" is already checked uncheck it hit apply, then recheck that box.

Go into Excel Options > Advanced > Display > and make sure "Show All Windows in Task Bar" is checked.

 

After trying many (if not all!) of the suggestions in different forums to solve this....this fix worked for me and appears to be permanent. Right click on the XLS tray icon, scroll down to the "Close All Windows", click on same, re-open the worksheets. Done.
I originally thought the problem was opening subsequent sheets from the first one opened (under the File-Recent link), but then the disappearing sheet problem showed up no matter how I opened (or closed) the sheets. I stumbled upon this as a last resort and it's been working for a few weeks! I work on several open spreadsheets at a time and am SUPER GLAD I discovered this *Smile. I suspect the problem may have been a 'ghost signal' lying to Excel. Cheers. MBd