Thx to Vince Verbeke for these steps:
Excel 2007: Documents Slow to Open
Try the workaround steps from this page. I did test these steps. They didn't appear to cause any ill effects.
1. Open any folder on the computer. From the Tools menu choose Folder Options.
2. Click the File Types tab.
3. Tap the X key on the keyboard to move you to that location in the list. Scroll down in the list of Extensions and locate XLS. Click it once.
4. Click the Advanced button.
5. Under Actions, highlight the Open command.
6. Click the Edit button.
Note: In the dialog box that appears you need to make two adjustments.
7. Click in the "Application to perform action" box. Press the RIGHT ARROW key to move the cursor all the way to the right. The will end with ...EXCEL.EXE" /e
With the cursor at the end of the line, press the spacebar once, then add "%1" (including the quotes)
Shoudl appear like this: ...EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"
8. In the DDE Application Not Running box (which should be blank), add the following new text, be sure to include the brackets.
[rem see command line]
10. Click OK. Click OK. Click Close.
Steps taken from here:
http://martin.von-gagern.net/howtos/excel2007load
Comments (4)
Thanks for this fix - it will save me lots of frustraltions and waiting time. I have been waiting exactly 63 seconds to any Excel file to open . I applied your fix to the .xlsx as well because I was experiencing the same delay.
Posted by Peter | June 27, 2008 2:51 AM
Posted on June 27, 2008 02:51
This fix does not "Fix" anything. It's a hack that just opens the document before loading Addins. If you use the %1 and open a document...you are unable to edit it until it has done it's full load. Generally the problem is caused by things in the XLSTART folder or other templates loading when XLS is launched.
Posted by Patrick | September 24, 2008 4:15 PM
Posted on September 24, 2008 16:15
This works well for both xls and xlxs files, thanks.
I believe my problem was caused by an add in that was on my computer inside the XLSTART folder that I used in excel 2003 called Row Liner. It seems it has been 'carried across' to excel 2007 when it was installed over 2003.
Thanks again for the good work!
Posted by David D | December 8, 2008 8:28 PM
Posted on December 8, 2008 20:28
Thank you so much for this solution. It worked!
Posted by Carla | February 26, 2009 11:07 AM
Posted on February 26, 2009 11:07