Opening .xls from Explorer problem

[Rope]

4 PCs, all running WinXP-Pro SP1, & Office XP-Pro

If the user clicks on a .xls file, Excel opens, loads the
file, but the view screen is transparent - i.e. you can see
the desktop. Click on View->FullScreen, the workbook
appears, turn off FullScreen and everything is fine.

Opening Excel and then opening any of the files works fine.

Excel has been re-installed on 2 of the machines, which
fixed the problem ....... for a few days, then it came back
again!

Tweaking the graphics settings in Advanced->Troubleshoot
and dropping hardware acceleration down a notch fixed the
problem ....... for a few days, then it came back again!
System Restore is turned off, and the graphics settings
remain as set.

I'm running out of ideas, any suggestions?

 

[Nick Hodge]

Rob

Don't know why this would effect multiple PCs but just in case, search for a
hidden file called Excel.xlb and delete it from a users pc and try
re-starting and using XL. It is the toolbar customisation file. XL will
create a new one but all customisations will be lost.

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Rope]

Nick Hodge spoke:

Don't know why this would effect multiple PCs but just in case, search for a
hidden file called Excel.xlb and delete it from a users pc and try
re-starting and using XL. It is the toolbar customisation file. XL will
create a new one but all customisations will be lost.

Thanks for the suggestion - there was an Excel10.xlb file, but removing it made
no difference.

We had re-installed from the original Office CD's previously, which didn't
work, but we have today re-installed on one machine from a new CD and it
appears to have fixed it - not sure how I feel about having to fork out for 4
new copies of Office though ;^(