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2.5. Find and Fix Startup Conflicts (Excel 2007 and Newer)

Disponible en español: Buscar y corregir Conflictos de Inicio (Excel 2007 y Posteriores)
Disponível em português: Procurando e reparando conflitos na inicialização (Excel 2007–2013)

Applies to: All Palisade products running as add-ins to Excel 2007 or newer.
If you have Excel 2000 through 2003, please see Find and Fix Startup Conflicts (Excel 2003 and Earlier).

Palisade software is not behaving correctly, and I think the problem may be a conflict with something else loaded in Excel. Do you have any kind of checklist for diagnosis?

If you have Excel 2013 or 2016, do this first: Open Excel and click File » Options » General. Remove the check mark from the last entry, "Show the Start screen when this application starts". Close Excel and reopen the Palisade software. (Why? One class of add-ins conflicts with some Palisade add-ins only when the Excel Start screen is enabled.) If that solves your issue, you can skip the rest of this article.

There are four potential sources of conflict: Excel add-ins, COM add-ins (two groups in separate lists), and your own automatic startup files.  When there's a startup conflict, turn off all the possible sources at once, then turn them back on again one at a time.  The Excel settings for this are scattered in several places in Excel and even in the System Registry.  We have tried to provide a step-by-step procedure to cover all the cases:

  1. Excel 2010 and later: click the File tab in the ribbon and then Options.
    Excel 2007: click the round Office button, then Excel Options.
    (If you can't even launch Excel, see Removing Excel Add-Ins if Excel Won't Start, below.)

  2. In the options list, click Add-Ins » Manage: Excel Add-Ins » Go. Remove the check marks from all third-party add-ins.

    If you have any Palisade add-ins checked (ticked), remove the check marks.  Our add-ins are designed to run without the check marks, except as explained in Opening Palisade Software Automatically Whenever Excel Opens.

    Excel's own add-ins such as Analysis Toolpak, Conditional Sum Wizard, Internet Assistant, Lookup Wizard, and Solver are not a problem.

    Get back to Options and click Add-Ins again. In the list of Active Add-ins at the top of the right-hand panel, are there any COM add-ins? If so, at the bottom click Manage: COM And-Ins » Go. Remove the check marks from all third-party add-ins. Caution: Some COM add-ins add themselves back if you disable them, either right away or the next time you open Excel. The next time you reopen Excel, verify that your COM add-ins have not re-enabled themselves.

  3. Get back to Options again and click Advanced, then scroll down to the General section. Look at the box labeled "At startup, open all files in". If there is anything in the box, make a note of it, temporarily clear the box, and click OK. (You will put that setting back later, in step 6.)

  4. Close Excel, open My Computer, and do a file search for XLSTART. There will probably be more than one folder with that name. Remove everything from every XLSTART folder. (You will put them back later, in step 7.)

  5. Now, run the Palisade software that was having a problem. If it now behaves correctly, then a startup conflict was responsible for the problem. But if the problem still occurs, please go to step 8.

  6. If Palisade software is now running okay, you can determine which item(s) provided the conflicts. Restore the setting of "At startup, open all files in", close Excel, and reopen our software. If the problem returns, you will have to eliminate items from that folder one by one, closing Excel and reopening our software each time, till the problem no longer occurs.

  7. Close Excel and restore one item to your XLSTART folders, then test our software. Repeat, closing Excel each time, till you've eliminated every conflict and added back every safe item.

  8. Some third-party COM add-ins don't appear in Excel's list, so you can't disable them there but must do it in the System Registry.  With Excel closed, click Start » Run, enter the REGEDIT command, and click OK.  Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins.  If it exists, right-click Addins and export it as a .REG file so that you can restore the settings later.  Then expand Addins and click on each subentry in turn, but not the "BigPicture Support Add-in", which comes from Palisade.  For each subentry, look at LoadBehavior in the right-hand panel and if it is 3 change it to 0.

    Repeat for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins, whichever one exists.

  9. You might not actually have a startup conflict, but rather an outdated or unstable version of Excel. It's very important to make sure you have the latest Service Pack installed.

    • Excel 2016 is too new for Service Packs, but verify that you have a released copy, not a prebuild.
    • Excel 2013: Click FILE » Account » About Excel. You should have at least Service Pack 1 (SP1), which was released in October 2015.
    • Excel 2010: Click File » Help and then in the right-hand pane click "Additional version and copyright information". A new window will open, and the first line in that window will show the installed Service Pack (SP), if any. As of October  2015, the latest Service Pack is SP2, but if you're reading this article later, please check at Microsoft's site to make sure you aren't missing a new Service Pack.
    • Excel 2007: Click the round Office button, then Excel Options » Resources. Look at the last line in the right-hand panel to make sure Excel has at least SP2 (Service Pack 2) installed. If not, go to Microsoft's site to download the latest (SP3), then install it.

  10. Office 2007 only: We have found that a repair install (not a reinstall) of Office 2007 cures many problems, even right after you have installed an Office 2007 service pack. The procedure for the repair install is explained in Repair of Excel or Project.

Removing Excel Add-Ins if Excel Won't Start:

  1. Click Start » Run, type REGEDIT, and press the Enter key.  (You will probably need administrative rights for this.  If your IT department does this for you, they must log in as you with administrative rights, because this procedure must be performed within your user profile.)

  2. In the left-hand panel, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office.

  3. Under Office, navigate to 12.0\Excel\Options for Excel 2007, 14.0\Excel\Options for Excel 2010, 15.0\Excel\Options for Excel 2013, or 16.0\Excel\Options for Excel 2016.

  4. For safety, make a backup copy of this entry, by right-clicking Options and selecting Export.  Chose any file name and location, but keep the file type as .REG.

  5. In the right-hand panel, right-click on each OPEN value and select Delete.  Answer Yes to the confirming prompt.

  6. Go back to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office in the left panel, then down to Excel\Addins under Office. Right-click Addins, select Export, and pick a file name and location. Then, right-click the Addins key and select Delete.

  7. Now, go all the way back to the root of the Registry, then select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins, whichever exists. Right-click Addins, select Export, and pick a file name and location. Then, right-click the Addins key and select Delete.

  8. Click File » Exit to close Registry Editor. 

Excel should now start without add-ins.  (Any startup files in your XLSTART folders are still loaded when Excel starts up, so be sure that you've already moved them.)

You can restore the previous values of those keys by double-clicking the .REG files that you saved.

Additional keywords: start up conflicts, conflicts at start up, conflicts at startup

Last edited: 2019-02-05

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