Help? -- personal.xlsb for Excel2007 in Win7

[kbockman]

This is a weird one. I've been searching for answers to this for hours and I'm not getting anything. If anyone can shed some light, I'd appreciate it.

I'm running Windows 7 Pro SP1 (32-bit)

When I launch Excel 2007, I get a blank spreadsheet and my personal.xlsb file opens (hidden) perfectly fine. No problems. Macros are all available.

However, if Excel is not already open and I double-click an Excel file in Windows Explorer, the program launches, the file opens, but the personal.xlsb does not load. The personal.xlsb file is in my XLSTART folder inside my user folder.

I've tried many different things (like deleting and creating a new one in Excel with just one simple macro), but cannot get this figured out. Has anyone encountered a similar problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RoryA]

If you look in the options under Advanced, is the option to ignore other applications using DDE checked?

 

[kbockman]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

It wasn't originally, but that was one of the many suggestions I saw so I tried it. Didn't work, unfortunately.

 

[RoryA]

You want it to be unchecked.
It sounds to me as though your file associations have gone awry. Have you tried a repair of the installation through control panel?

 

[kbockman]

Ha, ha! Success! I found the solution:

http://windowssecrets.com/forums/sh...Pane-blocks-Personal.xlsb-(2007-on-Vista-SP1)

The problem, apparently, is that Windows Explorer is opening an instance of Excel when you use the "preview pane" in a folder view. And when you then double-click a file to open it, that instance stays open and blocks additional instances from using the personal.xlsb file. The "solution" is to turn off the preview pane.

Man, I wish I had that four hours of my day back...

Thank you for your help, Rory -- I appreciate it! Interestingly, one of the people who helped in the link above was also named Rory.

 

[RoryA]

We are one and the same. My memory just isn't that good!