At times, while opening MS Excel, you find that it crashes, freezes, hangs, or stops working. Moreover, sometimes you get the following error message:

“Excel is not responding.”

This happens when your Excel sheet gets corrupt. The corruption in Excel sheet occurs due to various reasons. However, mentioned below are possible resolutions to get this problem fixed:

• Resolution 1: Install the latest updates: Sometimes, it is seen that the issues occur when you have not installed proper updates of MS Excel on your computer. Installing the latest updates generally resolves the problem.

• Resolution 2: Open Excel in ‘Safe Mode’: Starting Excel in ‘Safe Mode’ avoids various startup issues as it opens Excel without using some startup programs. You can use the ‘Safe Mode’ and open Excel in this mode by pressing and holding down the ‘CRTL’ key while starting this program. You can use ‘excel.exe/safe’ option while starting this program from command line.

• Resolution 3: Find Out the Problems with Add-Ins: It is many times seen that various Excel add-ins that users install with this application create a big mess and result in the above issues. You can divide these add-ins in two types:

1. Add-ins saved as .xla, .xlam, or .xll files: These add-ins are loaded in the user interface of Excel.

2. COM add-ins: Such add-ins have to be installed and they contain DLLs and Registry keys.

Disabling the add-ins is the best possible way to test which add-in is causing the problem and making Excel to crash.

• Resolution 4: Check Out Your Anti-Virus Software: Sometimes the anti-virus installed on user’s computer causes conflicts with Excel and results in the above-mentioned problems. Therefore, it is recommended to check whether your antivirus software is causing the problem or not. To do this, disable the anti-virus, and then try to start Excel. If the problem, persists then the issue is not related to the installation of antivirus.

• Resolution 5: Reinstall or Repair MS Office: Corruption in MS Office can be a cause of this problem many times. Therefore, it is recommended to reinstall or repair MS Office to resolve this issue. Follow the below mentioned steps to do the same:

1. Exit all MS Office programs that are running on your computer.

2. Open ‘Control Panel’, and then click ‘Add or Remove Programs’ (in Windows XP). Alternatively, you can select the ‘Programs and Features’ if you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7.

3. Go to the list of installed programs, right-click ‘Microsoft Office 2010’, and then click ‘Repair’.

However, if none of the above-mentioned resolutions is able to do any needful to you, then use of a professional Excel recovery software Reliable Excel recovery tool repairs corrupt MS Excel files without altering their original formatting. Therefore, opting for them is the best option to overcome data loss due to above-mentioned errors.