How to fix Excel running slow on Windows

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Microsoft Excel running slowly can affect work efficiency and reduce productivity significantly. Several factors can lead to this situation including unnecessary background processes, faulty add-ins, misconfigured settings and more.

Before considering switching to the web version of Excel or looking for other alternatives, try these tips to boost Excel's performance on Windows computers.

Run Excel in Safe Mode

One of the most common causes of Excel running slow on Windows is one of the add-ins that interrupt the application's process. To determine if this is the cause, run Excel in safe mode.

Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box. Type excel/s in the Open field and press Enter .

After Excel opens in safe mode, try using it for a few minutes and see if it runs smoothly. If so, that means an add-in is causing the error. To identify the add-in causing the problem, you need to disable all add-ins, and then re-enable each add-in in turn. To do this, do the following:

1. Open Excel and click the File menu at the top left corner of the screen.
2. Select Options from the left panel.
3. In the Excel Options window , select the Add-ins tab .
4. In the right panel, select COM Add-ins in the drop-down menu.
5. Click the Go button .
6. Uncheck all the boxes to disable the add-ins and click OK .

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Restart Excel on the PC and enable the add-ins one by one. Try using Excel after activating each add-in and see how it works. Once the error add-in has been identified, remove it.

Optimize Excel compatibility

The other thing you can do is improve the performance of Excel on Windows to optimize its interface for compatibility instead of the best visuals. This can help Excel achieve better overall performance and smoother operation.

1. Open Excel using the search menu.
2. Go to File > Options .
3. In the General tab , select Optimize for compatibility under User Interface Options .
4. Click OK  to save the changes.

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Restart Excel after that, and then check again to see if it still runs slow or laggy on the Windows computer.

Disable hardware graphics acceleration

Hardware graphics acceleration is a useful feature in Microsoft Excel that allows applications to utilize the GPU and improve performance in graphics-related tasks. However, if this feature does not work as expected, Excel may run slowly on Windows.

You can try disabling hardware graphics acceleration in Excel to see if the problem is fixed.

1. In Excel, go to File > Options .
2. Select the Advanced tab in the Excel Options window .
3. In the Display section , check the box Disable hardware graphics acceleration .
4. Click OK and restart Excel.

Turn on calculation manually

When you make changes to a cell, Excel recalculates all formulas and functions. This process can 'take up' resources and slow down the application when you enter or edit data.

To fix the problem, you can try to enable calculation mode in Excel. To do that, switch to the Formulas tab , click the Calculation Options button , and then select Manual . You can then press F9 any time you want Excel to recalculate.

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Reduce the size of the Excel file

The larger your spreadsheet, the more calculations and operations Excel has to perform. This can negatively affect Excel's performance and lead to various problems. To avoid this, you can try reducing the size of the Excel workbook by reducing the number of worksheets, removing unnecessary formatting, and compressing any pictures in the workbook.

The other thing you can do is save the Excel file as binary (.xslb). To do this, press F12 on your keyboard to open the Save as dialog box in Excel. Click the drop-down menu next to Save as type to select Excel Binary Workbook (*.xslb) , and then click the Save button .

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Above are the simplest ways to fix slow Excel error . Hope the article is useful to you.

Jessica Tanner

Update 08 August 2023