We are currently in the progress of deploying Office 2013 throughout the company. We've had a few users experience a strange issue with Excel (and possible other apps). The user will have an Excel file open and maximized. They will then open another Excel file (via Explorer), and the new file will open but will appear in the background, behind the first Excel file. Has anyone seen this, and/or have a fix?

Thanks in advance.

Hi KyleCarlson,

Based on your description, my understanding is that you opened an Excel file and then try to open a new Excel file. But the new Excel file was opened behind existing Excel window.

Is my understanding correct? Please tell me if this issue only occurred in Office programs? Which version of Windows are you using?

Ideally, Windows System default to set new windows in the foreground. Have you every checked the Add-ins in Office programs and the third-party in Windows System.

I suggest you perform a clean boot in Windows to troubleshoot, about how to perform a clean boot please refer to this link:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

Please try this method and check if it works for you, if your issue still exists please provide more information.

I'm glad to help and follow up your reply.

Regards,

Emi Zhang
TechNet Community Su

This is all over the internet so it is not person specific. When I open an existing file in xls or xlsx. There is always an extra window that is opened that appears to provide no value. I have seen solutions that require registry changes but this seems like a simple task that should not involve direct registry changes. When I open the program to a blank initial file, there is only 1 window but as I stated before, opening a file causes 2 windows.

Info that might be helpful to you based on what I have read is that I have no active add-ons, I have DDE unchecked, I have screen tip style set to 'don't who screentips'. Anything else you need?

This seems like MS should have a simple answer on this but I cannot seem to find it.

Thanks in advance