When you double-click an Excel workbook to open it, Excel might freeze or stop responding at its opening logo screen when the workbook has one of these characteristics:

• It is located on a shared network and is already locked for editing by another user.
• It is password-protected.

This problem occurs when you do not activate Excel before attempting to open the file. Excel loads add-ins during the start-up process, and that setup can be interrupted when files also have restrictions. This issue seems to occur more frequently with versions of Microsoft Office that are more recent than Office 2010.

SAS has worked with Microsoft and has found that the issue is resolved in Excel versions that are later than 2016 MSO Version 1803 (Build: 16.0.9126.2259).

If you are not able to upgrade to a version of Microsoft Excel in which the issue is corrected, use one of these workarounds:

• Open Excel before you double-click on the file you wish to open.
• After you open Excel, select File ► Open to open your file.
• Click and drag the desired file into an open Excel window.

If the file is password-protected because it is on a shared network and contains sensitive data, SAS^® Content Server provides a more robust and secure method of distributing information.

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