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

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

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.

--
Krgrds,
Perry


"Kingscram" wrote:

> 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

"Kingscram" wrote:

> 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

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.

"Kingscram" wrote:

> 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

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.

"OrlandoP" wrote:

> 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.
>
> "Kingscram" wrote:
>
> > 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

I have the same problem. It happens randomly

I have Vista Ultimate 2007 and Excel 2007

Weird thing is that if you shrink excel to a tiny box and then stretch it again the ribbon appears but still little functionality. Also pressing X seems to crash excel when it is in this state.

No other forum / kb seems to have anything on this.

It seems only a few are suffering from this problem. Otherwise there will be more posts out there.

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.
--
RaXeT


"Kingscram" wrote:

> 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

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" wrote:

> 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.
> --
> RaXeT
>
>
> "Kingscram" wrote:
>
> > 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

Nope, it happens whether IE is open or not

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.

--
RaXeT


"GeoEngineer" wrote:

> 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" wrote:
>
> > 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.
> > --
> > RaXeT
> >
> >
> > "Kingscram" wrote:
> >
> > > 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

I have the same problem with Vista Business and Office Enterprise.

I get this problem too when launching a 2003 Excel file from an e-mail attachment. Also, with several other programs open. I have one program open most of the time that makes Vista revert to the Basic Color Scheme. I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but it's worth noting.

When I use the dragger in the upper right corner and drag it all the way to the left and then back, the menu appears. But no matter what buttons I push, the document I loaded never appears, although it is listed (in View->windows).

I haven't seen any MS info on this. Do we have to wait for SP1?

I have had this problem for several months, but I have learned to live with it somehow. Every time (nearly every day), when this happens I kill Excel with the Task Manager and start Excel again. Sometimes I have to repeat this 3 or 4 times before Excel will start normally.

I use Excel every day and I really hope this problem will be solved soon. It seems that the solution will come with Office 2007 SP1 and not earlier.

I have Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 and this phenomenon doesn’t seem to depend on any other programs that are open. Also the way how to start Excel doesn’t seem to mean anything. My computer has a dual core Intel processor with 2 GB RAM.

try this

remove or rename this file from this folder (HTML.XLAM)


"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\Library\HTML.XLAM"


It is the "The Internet Assistant Wizard"


works for me!

We had exactly this problem. Reinstalling does not work, we tried all of that. The problem with trying to resolve this is that sometimes after several tries the workbook actually opens so just when you think it is resolved its actually not but you find that out fast.

The latest and only success that we had was to disable DDE in Folder Options, File Types for Excel.

Remember that if it is happening to XLS old format files that you would need to disable DDE under the XLS file type.

It immediately makes a difference and the problem has gone away for us.

Also I must add that with us it had nothing to do with saving to a network. The fault also happened with saving to local drives as well.

Hope this will also help someone else.