Excel Icon on taskbar does not open file, only program

keesadad said:

I've been running Windows 10 since last August, after upgrading from Win 8.1 on my Asus laptop.
I use the taskbar (launchbar?) to start my favourite programs, such as Excel, and some 8-10 files
are stacked on the icon so I can right-click the icon and select/open my desired file.

That was until approximately 10 days ago, when clicking on a file name only opened Excel, and I have to
do a file/open within Excel to get the file I want open. Other programs that are also on the bar e.g. my PDF program, still opens the file name I click on.

Any suggestions?

Wayne

Hi Wayne,
You haven't moved or renamed these Excel files, have you?
Does the same problem also happen with Word?
You could try repairing your office installation.
Right-click on the Start Button and select Control Panel>Programs and Features; wait for the list of installed programs to populate, then highlight Microsoft Office; click CHANGE up above the window, then REPAIR. You may have 2 repair options; if so, try the local one first and see if that does the trick.

Hope that helps.

That's odd. Have you tried unpinning Excel, rebooting and then re-pinning it back to the taskbar?

Here's something you could try:
Open Ccleaner, in the Cleaner window that opens, in the Windows Tab, uncheck everything except Taskbar Jump Lists. Then go to the second tab Applications, and unselect everything. Then click Analyse, then Run Cleaner.

See if that doesn't help. Of course, you'll have to open all your most-used Excel files once more, to repopulate the MRU list.

keesadad said:

thanks. that reminded me to update ccleaner too! as you said, I'd have to re-populate my excel files
on the re-installed taskbar icon, however that's the only result. what is strange is that after linking excel back to the taskbar,
the same files that were associated with that icon are back, even without running any of them. is that normal?

Well, I thought that those all fell under the "jump lists" category, but perhaps you could try going to the Applications tab and selecting the box for Office, and clearing out things that way.

So, you ran Ccleaner, re-pinned Excel to the taskbar, right-clicked the Excel icon, selected a file, and it still only opened up Excel and not that particular file? Try again - unpin, run Ccleaner with the Office box selected under Applications, reboot, re-pin Excel, and see if any jump list shows when right-clicking.

keesadad said:

I had suspected maybe a recent win10 update, which seemed to coincided with some strange messages, like my "video drivers stopped responding"- it causes a pause in spreadsheet function, then continues processing.
Wayne

Very strange. What version Office are you using? Can you reproduce the same problem with Word? I know you don't use that much, but it would be interesting to know if it's an "Office" thing, or an "Excel" thing.

And you've done the "repair" to Office - both local and online repair options?
Yes, I would be interested in the link to the MS community post.
Based on what you've given me here, I don't think it's related to W10, but I could be mistaken. I'll be curious to see what comes up in the other thread.

keesadad said:

I did the repair to Office" using 1-Control panel/right clicking on Office 2013 and selecting "repair", which ran for a minute or two
and gave a completed message, and 2-using ccleaner as directed today.
I will try to find the MS community posting and will send you a link.
Thanks, Wayne

I think there are two repair options - one is a local repair and one is an online repair, which is almost like a full reinstall, and needs to be reactivated when it's completed. You highlight Office in Programs and Features>Installed Programs, then click on CHANGE above the box, and you get the repair, then 2 repair options. Probably won't make any difference, but may be worth a shot.