Excel opens (additional) blank window when Vault tab (COM add-in) is enabled

[Gabriel_Watson]

Did anyone have this issue before with Office 2013 and Vault 2018?

We added the Vault tab (add-on) feature to Office, and whenever an Excel file is opened from Windows Explorer, an additional window that is blank gets opened together with the file.

Disabling the Vault COM add-in for Excel makes this problem go away.

Some users have this issue, but most don't.

Related posts (tried those solutions already):

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-excel/excel-opens-an-extra-workbook-on-...

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/2994633/excel-how-to-troubleshoot-excel-opening-blank-when-...

[rtowne72]

are all the users patched to the same level in Office?  We had a similar thing happen in 2017 but it was due to the users not getting office updates.  Once we found they needed the updates the issue went away.

[Gabriel_Watson · Accepted solution]

This fixed it:

1) Close Excel;
2) Hide "PERSONAL.XLSB" under "C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART";
3) Open any pre-existing Excel file, and close it (you should still see a blank/ghost window);
4) Open Excel again and see the issue is fixed.

==== RELATED LINKS:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_excel-mso_windows8-mso_2016/excel-2016-d...
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-excel/excel-opens-an-extra-workbook-on-...