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New excel.exe process opens if double-click on XLSX spreadsheet file (in Windows Explorer) if previously opened Excel from classic client GUI

Troubleshooting


Problem

User launches Controller classic client (CCR.EXE). User clicks on a menu item (for example the 'X' button) which causes Excel to open.
Afterwards, user launches Windows Explorer and double-clicks on an XLSX file. This opens in a NEW (separate) Excel instance.
  • This means that the user is not logged onto the Controller system (inside the new Excel instance)
  • Therefore if they try to logon/use/run/refresh (F9) that XLSX Excel-link file, then they will get an error similar to "User XYZ already logged in to this database"

Symptom

Scenario #1
Imagine the following scenario where the end user performs the following task:
1.    Logon to a client device, and create two blank/empty/dummy spreadsheet files (“test1.xlsx” and “test2.xlsx”) inside Documents:
 image-20191031073137-2
2.    Inside Task Manager, make sure that there are no ‘EXCEL.EXE’ processes running:
 image-20191031073157-3
3.    Launch Controller classic, and logon as ADM
4.    Click green ‘X’ button:
 image-20191031073241-4
5.    Inside Excel, notice how you are currently logged on:
image-20191031073310-5

6.    Inside Task Manager, notice how only one EXCEL.EXE process running:
 image-20191031073341-6
7.    Launch Windows Explorer (windows key + E)
8.    Browse to ‘Documents’ and double-click (or right-click and ‘open’):  test1.xlsx:
 image-20191031073410-7
9.    Notice how you see the Excel startup-logon showing:
 image-20191031073435-8
10.    You see two separate Excel windows.
-    However (more importantly) in Task Manager you see two separate EXCEL.EXE instances:
 image-20191031073502-9
11.    Inside the old Excel window, you can see the user is still logged onto Controller:
image-20191031073520-10
12.    However, in the new Excel window, you can see that the user is NOT logged on:
image-20191031073536-11
Scenario #2
Perform the same steps as above (in Scenario #1) but replace steps 7,8 with:
  • Open email client (for example Outlook)
  • Double-click XLSX file attachment (inside a message) to open that Excel file.
By doing the above, similar symptoms will occur.

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
09 May 2025

UID

ibm11101555

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