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Recover From Microsoft Excel Startup Error

Observations

You're unable to startup Microsoft Excel.

Possible Causes

This behaviour may be attributed to the following reasons:

• Corrupted Shortcut to the Excel Program
• Corrupted Excel toolbar file (*.xlb)
• Corrupted Excel file (*.pip)
• Corrupted add-ins under the Tools menu
• Corruption in Excel Startup Folder or Registry Key

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Resolution

Corrupted Shortcut to the Excel Program

1. Close any Microsoft Office programs
   
   
2. Click Start, point to Search, and then select For Files or Folders
   
   
3. Type in: Excel.exe
   
   
4. When Excel.exe is located, double-click on the file
   
   If Microsoft Excel starts up, we can conclude that an error in your shortcut has occurred.
   To resolve this, create a new shortcut to the Excel program.
   

To do this, follow these steps:

Right click on the Excel.exe file

Select Create Shortcut

If Excel does not start as mentioned, follow the remaining steps to run Excel in Safe Mode.

Click Start and select Run

Type in: excel.exe /s

If Microsoft Excel starts when you use the /s switch, "Safe Mode" appears in the
Excel title bar. This indicates Microsoft Excel is running as if it were the first time
after the initial installation.

Now that you have started Excel, use a process of elimination to step through the
following areas that Excel bypasses in Safe mode, until the problem is corrected.

 

Corrupted Excel Toolbar File

Excel stores information about custom toolbars in the toolbar file. A damaged toolbar file can cause problems during startup.

To solve this, follow these steps

1. Click Start, point to Search and select For Files or Folders
   
   
2. Type in: *.xlb
   
   
3. When the file is located, rename it
   
   By default where <folder> differs from various operating system, the toolbar file is stored in C:\<folder>\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\. Restart Microsoft Excel and a new toolbar file
   will be created.

 

Corrupted Excel.pip File

Excel remembers the recent menus and commands that you have used and displays them first. Excel hides the unused commands in its expandable menus. These information along with menu animation settings in stored in a file named Excel.pip. A corrupted Excel.pip file can cause startup problems.

To resolve this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Search and select For Files or Folders
   
   
2. Type in: Excel.pip
   
   
3. Rename the file to Excel.pip.old
   
   
4. Restart Microsoft Excel and the new (.pip) file will be created

 

Corrupted Add-ins

To check if the corrupted add-ins are responsible for the errors, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Run
   
   
2. Type in: excel.exe /automation
   If Microsoft Excel startup, we can conclude that your add-ins are corrupted.

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

Open Microsoft Excel

Select Add-Ins under the the Tools menu

Clear the check boxes that contains the add-ins

Click OK

Next remove the following registry keys:

Click Start and select Run

Type in: regedit or regedt32 (exclusively for Windows 2000)

Navigate to the following paths:

The location of the registry path will depend on the version of Microsoft Office installed

Excel 2003
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0

Excel 2002
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0

Excel 2000
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0

 

Corruption in Excel Startup Folder or Registry Keys

Use the Detect and Repair utility to repair any corruption. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Insert your Office Installation CD into your computer
   
   
2. At the Setup menu, select the option to repair Excel

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More Information

This article only applies to:

Microsoft Excel 2000

Microsoft Excel 2002

Microsoft Excel 2003

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