Open to blank workbook/Open to splash backstage broken after Excel 2016 O365 Upgrade

[louwill]

Hi Govert,

I'm having an issue after being upgraded to a new release of Excel 2016 (1705 Build 8201.2193).  I couldn't find anything while digging through the changelog for Office apps.  I have a mature addin that when enabled now presents a blank Excel application with no initial workbook (attached).  I've removed all code in AutoOpen and have disabled all other addins.  This behavior exists regardless of whether I'm debugging the addin.  Thanks for your help in advance.

Will

[louwill]

Is it possible ExcelDna.Integration is throwing an exception when attempting to get the Application instance before the try-catch referenced here?  I noticed that it attempts to grab the application by creating a workbook.

I'm trying to reproduce by building ExcelDna from source but that's a side topic.

Thanks,

Will

[Govert van Drimmelen]

Hi Will,

The issue is discussed on the MSDN forums here: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/2bb21bfb-4940-4a68-9656-743ae0b8b4da/bug-in-excel-2016-excel-starts-with-no-default-workbook-or-start-page-if-an-xll-is-registered?forum=exceldev

I believe this is an Excel bug, as I was able to reproduce it by compiling the sample .xll add-in in the Excel SDK - with that add-in installed the problematic behaviour happens, with no Excel-DNA or managed code involved at all.

It would be nice is someone could go through the steps to reproduce with the native C add-in, and confirm.

It might help if you can add your voice to the MSDN discussion, the bug report on the Microsoft answers site: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_excel-mso_win10-mso_o365b/bug-in-excel-2016-version-1707-excel-starts-with/9c013a9c-d600-4681-a04b-c3eeac207030?auth=1 and through the File->Feedback feature in Excel. Alternatively if you have some access to Microsoft through a sales or account manager, that might also help to report this bug.

A possible workaround is to install more .xll add-ins, for instance enabled the Analysis ToolPak add-in too. That seems to work around the problem.

-Govert

[Will Green]

I went ahead and responded to both threads and submitted a ticket via File | Feedback with a link to the Microsoft Answers URL.  Our organization does have a sizable O365 account so maybe I can push it through that channel.  The suggested workaround of enabling another addin did seem to temporarily fix it; it just couldn't be another ExcelDna addin.

Will

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[Will Green]

Govert,

It appears this has been fixed in 8528.2126.  See this thread on the MSDN forum.  Unfortunately, I'm on a quarterly release channel so it will likely be a while before I see it.  I did notice that while enabling the Analysis ToolPak does cause Excel to open to a blank workbook, it does *not* work when opening an Excel file from the file system.  Under that scenario, I'm presented with the gray application without opening the document.  Do you see the same behavior on your end?

Will

[louwill]

Hi Govert,

Have you seen this problem creep back?  I'm experiencing it again on the latest monthly channel release (v1811 build 11029.20079).  Enabling the Analysis ToolPak doesn't appear to fix it on my end.

Will

[Will Green]

I should note I'm only seeing it when debugging an ExcelDna project.  I tried commenting out everything in my IExcelAddIn.AutoOpen() implementation thinking it may have been related to code in Application.WorkbookOpen(), but that didn't resolve it.

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[Govert van Drimmelen]

I suggest you press the feedback button in Excel, and also post back to the MSDN forum discussion.

-Govert

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[Jetzt gleich]

Hello,

The problem does appear in Excel for Office 365 (16.0.11328.20362) in 64bit under Windows 10. Even the workaround of enabling another XLL Add-In is working again.

Regards,

Timotheus.

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[Govert van Drimmelen]

The problem appears to be fixed (again) in my version 16.0.12013.20000 32-bit.

-Govert

[Jetzt gleich]

Lucky you, Govert. ;-) 

Excel's Feedback option is disabled in my company, but I've added a comment to this thread at Microsoft.: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/a2b1b34e-5914-48df-bc19-71fa502477d2/excel-2016-bug-the-excel-window-shows-no-content-at-startup-if-an-xll-is-registered?forum=exceldev 

There is another recent entry (July 29, 2019) on the error occurring with 16.0.11328.20368.

[Gareth Hayter]

I'm seeing this behaviour again. Is anyone else also seeing the problem?

[Gareth Hayter]

This is still happening for me and users are complaining. Is there any workaround, an API we can call to force display of the backstage?

Could this be related? https://github.com/Excel-DNA/ExcelDna/issues/272