Fixing Annoying Word/Excel Windows Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter berkeman
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Excel Windows
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around an issue with Microsoft Word and Excel where minimizing one file causes it to reappear behind another open file. Users express frustration over this persistent problem, particularly in Windows 10, and note that it has been an annoyance for several years. The issue seems to stem from shared variables in DLLs between the applications. A workaround is suggested, involving testing the behavior of minimizing and working between multiple instances of the applications, though caution is advised against trying this with important files. Overall, the conversation highlights the need for a solution to prevent minimized windows from reappearing unexpectedly.
berkeman
Admin
Messages
69,104
Reaction score
24,013
This has bugged me for a while, so I finally was trying to figure out how to disable this "feature" today. But Microsoft Help and Google haven't led to any fixes yet.

If I have a Word file open and minimize it, and then open another Word file, the first file window also pops back up and ends up on-screen behind the new Word file window. The same thing happens with Excel files.

Does anybody know how to keep that from happening? It's really annoying; I have the first file window minimized for a reason -- I'm not working on that file currently but will get back to it soon enough that I don't want to close out that window.

Thanks for any tips. :smile:
 
Computer science news on Phys.org
Versions?
 
pbuk said:
Versions?
Oh, good point. It's happening to me in Win10, but I don't remember if this happened with any older versions. It seems like it's been an annoyance for several years now...
 
Overall, it sounds like they are sharing some variables of DLLs that they shouldn't be. I have a browser that behaves in a somewhat similiar fashion.

Just for proof-of-concept:
DON'T TRY THE FOLLOWING WITH ANYTHING IMPORTANT.
A clumsy work-around would be; with both instances open, see if one can be minimized while working on the other instance; check if it works both ways, and also for Saving and Opening without corruption.

Cheers,
Tom
 
In my discussions elsewhere, I've noticed a lot of disagreement regarding AI. A question that comes up is, "Is AI hype?" Unfortunately, when this question is asked, the one asking, as far as I can tell, may mean one of three things which can lead to lots of confusion. I'll list them out now for clarity. 1. Can AI do everything a human can do and how close are we to that? 2. Are corporations and governments using the promise of AI to gain more power for themselves? 3. Are AI and transhumans...
Thread 'ChatGPT Examples, Good and Bad'
I've been experimenting with ChatGPT. Some results are good, some very very bad. I think examples can help expose the properties of this AI. Maybe you can post some of your favorite examples and tell us what they reveal about the properties of this AI. (I had problems with copy/paste of text and formatting, so I'm posting my examples as screen shots. That is a promising start. :smile: But then I provided values V=1, R1=1, R2=2, R3=3 and asked for the value of I. At first, it said...
Back
Top