12 thoughts on “Excel Startup trouble”

1. This is an excellent resource. I see lots of questions about startup problems, now I know where to send people.

2. Hi Jan Karel

   Your page is great!

   The issues I frequently get are:
   the occasional loss of toolbar data
   the last s/s left ignore other applications ticked
   when opening c:my datamy wkb.xls it errors 3 times:
   cannot open “C:my” “datamy” “wkb.xls”
   all of my s/s open in internet explorer

   on another note..

   I discovered something which perhaps the MS developers accidentally left in Excel 2003.

   I discovered it while using RegMon on Excel startup.
   RegMon is from http://www.sysinternals.com
   I dont know how to activate the feature – if it is one.

   Create a Reg Key
   HKCUSOFTWAREMicrosoftOffice TestSpecialPerf

   Set the Default value to ?
   where ? is something I don’t know yet

   I’m thinking this activates some hooks into PerfMon?
   Wouldn’t it be interesting to get some Excel feedback from PerfMon?

   Pretty useless information, I know.. but thought I’d share it anyway.

   Cheers,
   Rob

3. Great resource. I have not had too many start up problems, but I did have shut down problems. Excel crashed every time I closed it for a while. Turned out my personal.xls workbook was corrupted. I exported all the modules and deleted the file. Then I created a new personal.xls and imported all the modules from the old one and everything works great. No more crashes.

4. Rob,

   Interesting discovery. So Excel 2003 creates that key at its startup? If not, how on earth did you get at that reg key?

   Andrew and Rick: Thanks for the compliments.

5. Jan Karel,

   Excel looks for that key on startup, whether it exists or not.

   Rob

6. Given the expertise in this group, I’m hoping someone can identify the problem and suggest a remedy. 2 users of my Excel application (.xls, not add-in) are experiencing a problem at start up. The Window.State = xlMaximized sub in my procedures doesn’t run; leaving the worksheets about the size of a wallet, and without min max capability. Is there something I can do at startup to work around this? Better yet, is anyone aware of a third-party program that might be preventing Excel from running it? Please suggest if you can. Thank you.

7. Where is the code located? (maybe good to show us some of it)

8. Glad to, thank you.

   THIS WORKBOOK
   Private Sub Workbook_Open()
   Call Read_registry_Value
   Application.DisplayAlerts = False
   ‘MAXIMIZES ACTIVE WINDOW
   Application.WindowState = xlMaximized
   UserForm1.Show
   End Sub

   USERFORM
   Private Sub UserForm_Activate()
   Call OpenProgram
   End Sub

   WORKBOOKOPEN
   Sub OpenProgram()
   Application.DisplayAlerts = False
   Call MakeMenuBar [creates my toolbar, then protects WB Structure=True, Windows=True]
   Call HideAllToolbars [hides Excel toolbars]
   End Sub

   USERFORM
   Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
   ‘OKAY BUTTON
   Unload UserForm1
   End Sub

9. Jan,

   I found a solution to the problem I posted on April 4, but am wondering if you know why the solution works. In the Open procedure I was Protecting the WB Structure=True Windows=True. By rewriting it to WB Protect Structure=True Windows=False, the program opens. Only a few customers had the problem, but do you (based on this latest information) have any idea why?

   Thank you.
   Jim Kobzeff

10. I suspect the windows protection prevented the application window from resizing indeed. No idea why though. A version difference maybe? I know Excel 2003 for example is more picky when it comes to what can be done when things are protected.

    Another thing to note is that I would advise you to move most of the code out of the Thisworkbook module, into a normal module. Some things seem not to work very well from within the Thisworkbook module.

11. Thank you, Jan; great site.

12. You’re welcome!

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