Another Windows 10 Anniversary Update (version 1607) issue to be aware of. Not Sage this time, Excel.
One of our test systems has 64 bit Windows 10 and 32 bit Excel 2016. After the Anniversary Update was applied, our Excel became unstable and would be prone to either hanging or failing completely. Can you imagine being without a spreadsheet program? What if our customers experience the same thing? Eeek!! Eventually we tracked the issue down to a printer driver incompatibility with the updated Windows 10.
Excel became stable again when we changed our default printer driver from the existing HP Laserjet one to "Microsoft print to PDF". We then went in search of a Windows 10 compatible printer driver for our Laserjet on the HP web site, downloaded and installed (the Windows printer driver update routines didn't solve our issue - we had to go direct to HP). Our Laserjet is now the default printer again and Excel is working.
I hope this heads up saves someone else the stress we suffered over this.
Oh Ian, you may have just hit the nail on the head with a MAJOR issue Im experiencing at a clients, although they are not on windows 10!
Excel hangs and crashes all the time, just on the PC Im using. Sometimes pops up with the usual not responding message, crashes in full. Or crashes in part where it hangs and you cant even do a control alt delete thing. Sometimes comes up with a graphics card driver issue. The tech support just want me to delve around the desks, swap cables, try another monitor and such, but I keep telling them Im just the bloody bookkeeper - I dont work there! There was an issues with the printing of invoices on two printers after the installation of a new sage on their server, the IT team just said to buy new printers, but in a conversation about something else with sage their guy suggested it would just need a driver update on the printer. But I had no clue which driver to use from the HP website and as I dont work there again suggested a member of staff deal with it - lets face it I dont want suing for buggering up their systems! But 7 months down the line and the only person its badly impacting is me....especially every time I use excel, which is a lot!
Ive become convinced that Microsoft are doing updates to windows 7, at the same time as windows 10, which are loading bugs onto peoples PCs (another way to force them to a windows 10 upgrade perhaps?) - only anecdotal evidence of my PC 'buggering up' and Shaun mentioning on here the other day that his had to!
Wonder if the two are connected. Think an email to HP is required at the very least. Not sure about the graphics card thing.
Thanks for the heads up.
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
See if changing the default printer setting to Microsoft Print to PDF or Microsoft XPS Document Writer fixes the problem. My understanding is that Excel accesses the default printer driver when it starts up so, if there's any incompatibility, it could make Excel unstable. If Excel is fine with one of those as the default printer driver, I think that would confirm it as a printer driver issue and you should pursue your printer manufacturer for a compatible printer driver.
HP Laserjet users can find the "Recommended Solution" for their printer model at http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04675396. If you're using a Laserjet, the first entry for "Laserjet Family" didn't solve my problem but the solution for my specific model further down the list did. Perhaps you could point your client's IT guys to that page?
