[ms office - 2013] Opening (0%) forever

[Callum]

We've just rolled out a new image of Windows 7 Professional (x64) which has Office 2013 preinstalled and activated. It works perfectly fine as intended, however random the odd random spreadsheet will just saying "Opening ... (0%)" indefinitely. Killing 'EXCEL.EXE' and then doing an Auto Recovery of the file opens it fine, so it's not like the spreadsheet is corrupt. Other computers using Office 2016 can also open the spreadsheet absolutely fine.

 

Is there something that has been overlooked when creating the image, or does something need configuring? The affected spreadsheets do not seem to have anything in common, they're just random.

[Callum]

I've discovered this is happening with files that are protected by a read-only password. It's as if the password prompt never appears, and Office waits indefinitely.

 

I have tried minimising everything and dragging the Excel splash screen to the side of the screen, but there is no hidden password prompt anywhere.

[Callum]

Found the cause to be a buggy add-in (SMART Ink). We've tried disabling the add-in in the mandatory profile by removing the registry keys, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. Does anybody know where the add-in list is stored in the registry? Is it in the user or computer hive?

[Steve21]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\SMARTInk-Excel-All

 

Set LoadBehavior to 2

 

Is what we do, doesn't disable the addin but makes it not automatically load.

 

Steve

[FragglePete]

I concur with Steve on this one, we have exactly the same problem with all machines that are running the Smartboard software - SmartInk is your culprit and needs to be turned off.

 

We're still running the older version of Smart Tools, (before they went to a subscription model) so not sure if this is true for the newer versions of the software. Anyone care to confirm this?

 

Pete

[Callum]

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\SMARTInk-Excel-All

 

Set LoadBehavior to 2

 

Is what we do, doesn't disable the addin but makes it not automatically load.

 

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

 

Thanks very much for the response. We originally tried setting LoadBehaviour to 0, and then to 2 as you suggested, however neither seems to fix the issue. After logging in as a user with the amended mandatory profile, Excel still sticks on 0%. Is there another reference to this add-on in the user/computer hive that needs removing?