Why when I launch Excel do I get a light blue screen?

[Kingscram]

Occasionally, when I launch Excel, all I get is the task bar (that would
normally be at the bottom of the screen) appearing at the top, with a blank
light bluue colour covering the rest of the screen. Happens 25% of the time.

Vista 64 / Office 2007

 

[Scott Gross]

I have the same problem when I launch it from the Excel icon. If I open a previously made Excel file, it opens just fine. The light blue screen has a zoom control in the upper right corner and a little bit of text that says "Enter" sometimes and then other things at other times. It used to work just fine.

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[Spencemeister]

I'm getting the same problem. I was able to create a new spreadsheet using
Excel 2007, but when I tried to open a spreadsheet created with Excel 2003,
Excel opens exactly as you describe.

It concerns me that this has been open for more than a month and there has
been no resolution. Please advise.

Additional Information:

It's a very odd window too. It doesn't have the standard title bar across
the top, and I can't grab the window and move it around. I can only resize
it.

The only action I can take is to right-click the top bar. This brings up a
menu called "Customize Status Bar". This contains 22 options that can be
selected or unselected:

Cell Mode
Signatures
Information Management Policy
Permissions
Caps Lock
Num Lock
Scroll Lock
Fixed Decimal
Overtype Mode
End Mode
Macro Recording
Selection Mode
Page Number
Average
Count
Numerical Count
Minimum
Maximum
Sum
View Shortcuts
Zoom
Zoom Slider

 

[Spencemeister]

Work around: Close any Windows Explorer windows before launching Excel.

Further research yielded the following information from "Perry" which I
confirmed works.

Problem can be re-produced as follows:
- Close all other programs
- Open Windows Explorer
- Startup Excel 2007 either from Programs under start, or fire "Excel.exe"
from the Start | Searchbox

The problem (possible bug) appears to be limited to Windows Explorer being
opened when starting up Excel.
If Windows Explorer isn't open, I can't reproduce this phenomenon.

 

[OrlandoP]

Occasionally, when I launch Excel, all I get is the task bar (that would
normally be at the bottom of the screen) appearing at the top, with a blank
light bluue colour covering the rest of the screen. Happens 25% of the time.

Vista 64 / Office 2007

 

[OrlandoP]

I have had this problem also. The blue screen seems to launch randomly, from
shortcuts, from the start menu etc. Some times it will repeat two or three
times and then be a normal spreadsheet. This occurs with no other
applications open, includiing Microsoft Explorer.

 

[GeoEngineer]

I am having the same problem since I installed Excel 2007 on a new machine
with Vista Ultimate. It happens with and without other software open, and
there is no logic to when it occurs. Has MS seen this problem? I reported
it to our IT department a couple of months ago (we have a site license), but
I have not received any resolution yet.

 

[Raxet]

The solution for the time being is confirmed here. Running Vista 64 bit
Ultimate, with Office Ultimate. Just make sure you DON'T use the browser IE
when using Excel. Using Firefox doesn't cause this weirdness.

 

[GeoEngineer]

I am a bit confused on your response, Raxet. I am running 32 bit Vista
Ultimate with Office Ultimate, and still have this problem. Can you clarify?
Thx.

 

[Raxet]

I should clarify. The problem still exists.

However, if you reboot your system and open Excel, without opening a file of
the type .xls, you should be fine.

The problem crops up after saving a file in .xls instead of .xlsx.

At any rate Microsoft certainly should have a KB on this by now.