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View Full Version : Solved: Excel can't find the personal.xls



lucas
09-25-2006, 11:04 AM
If I delete it from the xlstart directory it will create a new one if I record a macro but if I close and reopen excel it is not available and unhide is greyed out although the personal.xls exists in the xlstart folder.

If I put other files in the xlstart folder they are found and opened when excel is run?!

Anyone experienced this in the past or have any ideas.

I can use alt under general options to create a new one close to the root directory(it then works) but not in the default location?

mvidas
09-25-2006, 12:55 PM
Hey Steve,

What happens if you use file/open to open the personal.xls file from xlstart?

Matt

lucas
09-25-2006, 03:20 PM
Matt,
I can open it that way. It opens with the personal.xls unhidden with one sheet(which is what my personal.xls has).

If I double-click on it from explorer it behaves differently....it opens hidden with no sheet showing.

By either method above: After closing and re-opening Excel the personal.xls is not recognized. Unhide is greyed out so its not listed as a hidden sheet and its not listed in the vbe.

Seems like Excel is looking in the wrong place for it or doesn't recognize it? It's odd though because it is the personal.xls that was saved to the default location when I recorded a macro...?

When this happened I also lost the icons from my one custom toolbar that ran the macros in my personal.xls. Don't understand why but maybe it gives someone a clue.

mvidas
09-25-2006, 04:08 PM
Hmm.. just another idea (doubtful if you didnt do anything to change it), what does the registry say? (start/run, regedit)
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.x\Common\General
under xlstart? it should just say XLSTART
What happens if/when you move your personal.xls, record a macro (so it creates a new one), save that, and close excel? does the new one open up with excel?
just brainstorming some suggestions

lucas
09-25-2006, 04:15 PM
Keep thinking Matt....registry checks out as you detailed. I had already tried moving the personal.xls....then recording a macro to create a new one. It creates it and it is available as long as you don't close excel. After closing and re-open excel its not available..its a total mystery to me.

Shazam
09-25-2006, 04:20 PM
Hi Lucas,



See if this helps. In excel go to your Help bar and click on Detect and Repair. I know Office 2000 and up has that feature but before that I dont know.

lucas
09-25-2006, 04:21 PM
Would like to mention again that I also lost all custom buttons when this happened and that I have run detect and repair and scanned with norton.

Hi Shazam. Thanks for the suggestion. We posted at the same time. Office 2003 SP1

Ken Puls
09-25-2006, 04:22 PM
When this happened I also lost the icons from my one custom toolbar that ran the macros in my personal.xls. Don't understand why but maybe it gives someone a clue.

Hey Steve,

I wouldn't think this would have anything to do with it, but since nothing else has worked... Have you tried deleting your *.xlb files to kill all instances of your custom toolbars? You can always create them again later, but if the issue is in the toolbar, maybe it is affecting the personal.xls? :dunno

Doubtful, but worth a shot, maybe.

mvidas
09-25-2006, 04:23 PM
even the new one isnt available? interesting! just to confirm:
(im gonna call them personal1.xls and personal2.xls despite them both being called personal.xls)
-personal1.xls is in xlstart, not opening with excel
-you move personal1.xls to another folder
-create personal2.xls by recording macro, it saves to xlstart
-you close excel, reopen, and personal2.xls doesnt show up?

and the alternate startup file location is blank in the options?

are you having the same problem with normal.dot in word?

this is doubtful, but just to check.. after closing excel, go to the task manager, are there any other instances of excel.exe running? what about a system restart, im sure you've tried that?

the fact that your toolbar got changed does give a clue that something got corrupted.. have you tried detect and repair (or the commandline switches to un/re-register it)?

mvidas
09-25-2006, 04:25 PM
to do the re-registering of it, go to start/run and put in:
excel.exe /regserver

that re-checks all the registry entries

You might also want to search your computer for "xlstart", see if another exists somewhere

lucas
09-25-2006, 04:45 PM
even the new one isnt available? interesting! just to confirm:
(im gonna call them personal1.xls and personal2.xls despite them both being called personal.xls)
-personal1.xls is in xlstart, not opening with excel
-you move personal1.xls to another folder
-create personal2.xls by recording macro, it saves to xlstart
-you close excel, reopen, and personal2.xls doesnt show up?
The above is correct. Doesn't make sense does it?


and the alternate startup file location is blank in the options?
correct


are you having the same problem with normal.dot in word?
No problem with normal.dot


this is doubtful, but just to check.. after closing excel, go to the task manager, are there any other instances of excel.exe running? what about a system restart, im sure you've tried that?
No extra sessions running...check process also.


the fact that your toolbar got changed does give a clue that something got corrupted.. have you tried detect and repair (or the commandline switches to un/re-register it)?
both tasks completed with no joy.


Hey Steve,
I wouldn't think this would have anything to do with it, but since nothing else has worked... Have you tried deleting your *.xlb files to kill all instances of your custom toolbars? You can always create them again later, but if the issue is in the toolbar, maybe it is affecting the personal.xls? :dunno

Ken, I zipped both xlb files then deleted(there were 2 excel.xlb & excel11.xlb) ran excel and it created a new one...still no joy.

I would like to add that this is not really affecting my use of excel, just a total mystery.

mvidas
09-25-2006, 04:51 PM
what version?
if >= 2002 go to Help / About, then disabled items, is it in there?

johnske
09-25-2006, 05:04 PM
is it in the right startup folder? (there's more than 1) Try this to find correct path MsgBox Application.StartupPath

lucas
09-25-2006, 05:07 PM
That was it Matt. I had never seen this option before but we have a personal.xls and my buttons have returned. Thanks for staying with me on this as I had run out of ideas. Thanks to Ken, Shazam and others for their input.

lucas
09-25-2006, 05:09 PM
Thanks John, that returns the correct path....

Ken Puls
09-25-2006, 05:39 PM
Nice work, Matt! :)

I'd never actually noticed that little message box before either. Hardly ever look in the about screen at all, actually. ;)

mvidas
09-26-2006, 05:46 AM
Yeah, alright! The guy who stubbornly stays with excel 2000 got it! :)
I'd like to thank the monkeys at google for their tireless efforts, if they didn't transcribe every webpage into their DB we'd all be nowhere