Excel 2016 stuck on Opening in Protected View
Problem
You may be experiencing an issue opening Excel documents from emails or online using Excel 2016. Excel will seem to freeze or hang on Opening in Protected View.
It may also display an error that states Microsoft Excel (Protected View) has stopped working. Followed by the error: ‘The file is corrupt and cannot be opened’.
Cause
In many cases, this seems to be an issue with the DisplayLink drivers. If you’re using a DisplayLink adapter to run an external monitor, you may encounter this issue. If your DisplayLink adapter is plugged in, Excel will usually hang on the Opening in Protected View screen. If the adapter is unplugged, Excel will usually display the ‘Microsoft Excel (Protected View) has stopped working’ error.
According to this support thread, DisplayLink are aware of the issue and are working on a driver update.
Workaround
To work around the issue with the DisplayLink Drivers, you will need to disable hardware graphics acceleration.
Here’s how to do it.
- Open Excel 2016 in a new window
- Click File
- Click Options
- Click Advanced
- Under Display, check the box ‘Disable hardware graphics acceleration‘.
- Click OK, close Excel, and try to open the document via email again.
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