Slow Opening Excel 2003 Files in Excel 2007 (Updated)
When opening Microsoft Excel 2003 files in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 without having Excel 2007 already running you may find that files that a long time to open (20-60 seconds) while Excel 2007 or even Microsoft Office Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007 files take only a portion of that time to load.
The solution to this problem is easy and does not require any additional software other than the standard Microsoft Windows Explorer.
- Open Windows Explorer (explorer.exe)
- Select Tools | Folder Options from the menu
- Go to the File Types tab.
- Select list item XLS (Microsoft Office Excel 97-2003 Worksheet) and click on Advanced.

Excel 2007 - Folder Options in Windows Explorer, Editing Action for Microsoft Office Excel File Type

Excel 2007 - Folder Options in Windows Explorer, Editing Action for Microsoft Office Excel File Type (Rolled Up)
If the “Application used to perform action:” field the default value should be “C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice12EXCEL.EXE” /e” . Change this to “C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice12EXCEL.EXE” /e “%1″ . Remember to enclose the full excel.exe path and %1 in parenthesis. Since Windows 95 this is a way to escape spaces in file names; %1 will return the file name of that file that is being opened by double-clicking.You can uncheck “U se DDE” but Microsoft Office Excel 2007 will bring it back to what you see above when you next open it.

- Just confirm (hit “OK” ) on all the Microsoft Windows Explorer dialogs and next time you open a Excel 2003 file in Excel 2007 without having it already running you won’t have to wait!
- If the above listed steps don’t fix the problem, simply add the Lookup Wizard add-in in Excel. Some readers have reported that solved the problem for them! To install it click the Office Button, Excel Options, Add-Ins, and then click Manage Excel Add-ins | Go on the bottom of the window, select Lookup Wizard and click OK!

excellent solution and it worked successfully.
This fix did not work for me. Excel documents still takes 60 seconds to launch from a double-click. Any other ideas?
I did what you said and the first time I opened an Excel 2003 xls file it displayed immediately. But thereafter when I opend one it is now back to taking 20-60 seconds. I can shortcut the time by clicking the Windows icon in the upper left hand corner. My default value had the /e but also had /n? Any further ideas?
Thoss
I have the same problem with 2007 Excel and Word data files opening slow…while the main app opens just fine. I am running Vista Business 64, and I do NOT have a file types tab on my folder options. HELP !!!
I used the “%1″ and it didn’t work at first. It only worked when I finally unchecked the DDE box.
The /n is for the New. You need to select the Open before you edit. It it has work twice for me so far. We as a company are upgrading to Office 07 and this has come up. This fix is working for me
Thanks
I knew it wasn’t just me.
Thanks for the info, worked great !
Unchecking dde didn’t work for me either on Office 2003. The option would be re-enabled by itself.
This registry fix worked.
Changed
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8]
@=”Microsoft Excel Worksheet”
“EditFlags”=hex:00,00,00,00
To
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8]
@=”Microsoft Excel Worksheet”
“EditFlags”=dword:00010000
Don’t know what other implications this might have, but so far all is good.
Important note: BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE ANY CHANGE
Hola:
Versión 2:
Solo para que no muestre los parpadeos a la hora de hace los cambios o cálculos
Y un pequeño sumario de que hace cada instrucción.
Anexen lo siguiente:
Para el WorkBook: (en el ThisWorkBook de VBA)
Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False ‘ Para que no muestre parpadeos la pantalla al cambiar los datos
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual ’ para que no calcule la Hoja Automáticamente
Application.OnKey “{F9}”, “Recalc” ‘ ’ Anula el calculo
Application.ScreenUpdating = true ’ muestra los cambios
End Sub
‘————-Hasta aquí
Y para cada hoja “Sheet1(Name)” (En VBA) donde tengan datos que cambien de valor, ya sea de PI o que capturen.
‘ desde Aquí
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Excel.Range) ’ Cada que cambia de valor una celda se dispara el macro
Application.EnableEvents = False’ para que no muestre parpadeos
Application.OnKey “{F9}”, “Recalc” ’ elimina el bug de excel
Application.EnableEvents = True ‘ muestra los cambios realizados.
End Sub
‘Hasta aquí
Chequen los comentarios, jejejejeje
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730921.aspx#office2007excelperf_ExcelPerformanceImprovements
Compartir, dí no a la piratería.
Saludos.
Tried everything. – uninstalled, re-installed, ran CCleaner to get rid of temp files and reg entries, did ‘‘Ignore other applications that use DDE’’, deleted personal.xls, disabled plug ins, deleted pdfmaker, NOTHING worked.
The following did:
In Registry, scroll down to >
HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft
Here you will find a folder named ‘Office’. Rename it, for e.g. to ‘OfficeOld’.
[This folder has subfolders which might include 8.0 and 11.0, which are probably for older versions of Office installed on that machine, and these dont go away even after uninstalling these older versions. Even running CCleaner on temp files and reg files didnt make them go away, and whatever the problems were they were causing. The new 'Office' folder which gets created when you open Office 07 for the first time after renaming it, only has Office 12.0]
i add “%1″ but after again open the error is C:/Documents.xls could not be found
Tried all the above solutions – none of them worked.
BEWARE OF NA’s Registry fix solution – especially if you have a parallel installation of Excel 2003 or if you have customised menus and toolbars – this “fix” will wipe them out, and it still won’t solve the problem od slow opening files
Also, BEWARE of the “%1″ solution – it will mess with the way Excel opens and will screw up the loading any macros that you have stored in your personal.xls(b) files
We import 2500 cells of data (text and numbers, no formulae) in four columns from another program into Excel, automatically opening Excel from the other program.
With earlier Excel, this was virtually instant. With Excel 2007 it takes several minutes.
Suggestion to Microsoft. A simple fix would be to allow the Excel 2007 users to reduce their Excel 2007 rows, columns and sheet count to the Excel 2003 settings. Let’s face it, having mega numbers of rows, columns and sheets may be a macho statement, but is a waste of time for 99.999% of Excel Users, so why saddle them with this bloated time and memory hogging overhead as the default settings.
I have an excel file I cannot open on my flash drive can you help me
I had this problem and found that Explorer had become the default program to run these files. I just changed the default to Excel and it worked fine. Windows explorer – tools – folder options – File types – scroll and highlight XLS. Make sure it says “Opens with Microsoft Office Excel”
No tools show up in my windows explorer, I am currently running vista any ideas how to do this fix or how I cant find the tools? I cant find anything that looks like the screen shot of the window above.
Hi Chris,
If you’re using Vista (this also works for Windows 7) then just press Alt + T and the Tools menu will appear. Although you can show / hide the menus as you wish the keyboard shortcuts continue to work (Alt + F, Alt + E, etc.)
Thank you for the tip about Alt+T that worked to find the tool bars but now the screen shot is not the same as the options folder that appeared to me. Do you have any instructions how to fix the problem from the vista view? I dont have a tab that says file types after I get into folder options. Let me know if you can help, Thanks
Hey! it worked for me (XP SP3 & Office 2007 on E6600 Core 2 Duo)
thanks you so much.. for this such a useful and informative solution….
Hatsoff to you!!!
Take Care
Awesome .. worked a treat. It was very frustrating having to wait for xls files to open.
Great Job. Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooo much
When I go to explorer; Tools’ Folder Options, I do not have a tab called File Types – only General, View and Search. What am I missing?
Exelent help,Working fine…..Thank you.
I have the same problem with 2007 Excel and Word data files opening slow…while the main app opens just fine. I am running Vista Business 64, and I do NOT have a file types tab on my folder options. HELP !!!
Great job!! Thanks for the solution. It works
great tip!!! works like a charm
That %1 append doesn’t work
Problem solved by a different method. There are tons of possible solutions on the internet for this widely experienced problem and I tried all of them. Here is what worked for me. I discovered that when I unplugged the network cable from the afflicted laptop, the problem went away. When plugging it back in, the problem came back. Solution for me was to delete an hp printer (configured on a local port but with an IP address) and then reinstall the driver. Relief!
I believe that this is the strangest fix for the Excel 2007 problem that we’ve collectively come up with! In the end you never know what software / drivers are causing problems!
Hohoho…Finally i can do that !!! Try out long time due to the spcae between /e “%1″ and the quotation must be double not single(type twice). Hahaha..Thanks thanks…
I have same Office 2007 on a Win 7 x32bit having same problem opening a workbook on a shared drive really slow to not responding. How do you edit the action type? the advance tab seems to be not an option with Win 7.
If you’re using Vista (this also works for Windows 7) then just press Alt + T and the Tools menu will appear. Although you can show / hide the menus as you wish the keyboard shortcuts continue to work (Alt + F, Alt + E, etc.)
Hi,
Thank you for this VERY useful information! I followed your instructions and it worked immediately. I tried it a few times and everytime it worked, so I guess it works. I unchecked the “Use DDE” as well.
Jennifer
Hi,
I also had the problem that starting up .xls files (from Excel 2003) in Excel 2007 took more than 30 secs. After 3 hours searching (adding “%1″ didn’t work) I’ve found the solution.
Try this
Enable the add-in “look-up wizard” the following way.
Open Excel 2007.
Click the Microsoft button
Excel Options
Add-ins
make sure the pull-down window says excel add-ins and click go.
Enable the look-up wizard (this is the only add-in that will work).
@satish
Excellent. Worked like a charm.
Outstanding! Before fix it took forever for Excel’07 file to open through Windows Explorer(XP Pro). Now pops up in seconds. Fix worked like a charm. Many thanks.
Alke’s fix worked for me, I tried it first and struck 1st time lucky (I have Office 2007 on XP)
Many thanks
I had this problem, double clicking took ages to open Excel files.
Noticed that if I killed the process spoolsv.exe in the task manager all pending documents opened up instantly. Which led to believe there is some problems with a network printer…
BUT… The later fix worked for me (Simply installing the Lookup Wizard in Excel). Easy, but weird.
I did what you said and the first time I opened an Excel 2003 xls file it displayed immediately. But thereafter when I opend one it is now back to taking 20-60 seconds. I can shortcut the time by clicking the Windows icon in the upper left hand corner. My default value had the /e but also had /n? Any further ideas?
Hey all. So my problem was with a dodgy add-in. Actually my company uses salesforce and the salesforce addin seems to be causing the problem.
I have a folder called C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\XLSTART where all the add-ins are loaded from. Within that folder I had two add-ins, SFDC.xla and SFDC12.xlam. After removing and re-adding them one at a time it apears that the xlam add-in is causing the slow startup. Removed and problem solved.
Thanks for all the other suggestions. Clearly there is a fault with Excel that makes it choke on startup for any number of reasons. Shame on Microsoft for not addressing this. I have wasted several hours figuring out how to stop this playing up.
By the way – I tried the %1 and the only thing it did was cause me errors and made me hack the registry to get it fixed again so would not recommend that one!
Neither of these fixes worked for me, turned out to be an issue with the default printer. Removed it as the default and everything returned to normal. Will be updating the drivers and trying again.