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Office apps not closing in Task Manager when program closed

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9K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  Cookiegal 
#1 ·
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.4
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570 CPU @ 3.40GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 8136 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 610, -2048 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 465 GB (261 GB Free);
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., B75M-D3H
Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials, Enabled and Updated


For the last week or so, I have two computers which on occasion, continue to show Word, Excel or Access running in task Manager after the program has been closed via closing the X on a word doc, excel or access file. This does not happen every time - but it does happen at least once a day. Once it happens, if another word document is opened and closed, then there will be two instances of word running in processes - not in the application pane, but on the processes tab and it seems to be hogging a lot of RAM. The process can be ended either by using "End process" or simply logging out and back in again to the user account.

I first came across it when trying to back up an outlook pst file - it said it was in use by another program, and then I found although Outlook was closed, Word was running in task manager. There was no reason for it to be running that was obvious (not tied to any other program). It seems to be a memory leak where it just stays in there after being closed....except that it is happening on both computers, (seems strange), and it started a couple of days on one before the other.

I checked for add ins and in word they were all marked as inactive, but most to load at startup.

This is what I have:

There are no COM add ins.

Listed as Inactive:

Actions pane Schema for add-ins
Date (XML)
Instant messaging contacts (English)
Measurement converter
Microsoft Actions Pane 3
Telephone Number (XML)
Time (XML)

When I go to the XML schemas tab, the only thing on it is Actions pane Schema for add-ins... but there does not seem to be a way to remove or disable it. The others are all on the Actions tab, but again there is only an option to enable them, not remove. None of them are ticked.

I also tried looking when running as administrator because I found with Outlook that I had to do this to remove add-ins.

I have Office up-to-date (just updated yesterday) and I have also tried a repair.

Any ideas?
 
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#3 · (Edited)
Sorry, it's Office 365 Home ....
version 1905 Build 11629.20246 Click-to-run

Seems to be getting worse..happening more often... I've had several word docs open this morning, closed them all.... and I have 5 instances of word running in processes.

As further background info, I had a bit of a crash a week or so ago - BSOD. I recovered from that, and things seemed to be going OK. I did run sysfile check and it was OK. The only issues I have had have been this issue of office apps being stuck in memory...and also at times if I am browsing through explorer, it is very slow to respond...which I put down to the office apps hogging system resources. It would seem obvious that the crash has left a scar somewhere...except that my husband's computer which has not had the crash, is exhibiting the same behaviour and started about the same time....I have seen multiple posts about this sort of thing happening with other people in the past, but nothing very recently....

I'm wondering whether it's something to do with click-to-run and whether I should try disabling it?

Just for some other information, we are logged in to our office account as required to keep it activated, however we do not use onedrive to backup to the cloud.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Desktops and they are totally shut down at least once a day.

I don't know if this helps, but when I go into Task Manager and click on Resource Monitor and look at the processes there,...if I right click on Winword/Excel/Access....and click on Analyse wait chain....there is a child node splwow64.exe thread. (Printer driver). So the office app is waiting for this driver to do it's thing before closing...but I'm not actually printing anything when it happens. I checked my "real" printer for driver updates but there were none. However there are also a few virtual printers such as Microsoft XPS (which I never use), and a pdf printer Cutepdf and another pdf printer which prints from a genealogy program. There would be no update for the last as it's a very old program.
 
#6 ·
Have you tried running Word or Excel in safe mode? I don't mean Windows safe mode but you can run the applications themselves individually in safe mode by typing Winword /safe or Excel /safe (note the space between the program name and the /) and then Enter. If it no longer shows in Task Manager after closing the program with the "X" in safe mode then that would indicate an add-in is causing the issue.
 
#7 ·
Weirdly, I haven't had the problem today - have held off saying this so as not to tempt fate! Fingers crossed it stays fixed. I don't know why it suddenly came good - I tried changing several things on my computer, and suddenly it seemed to behave. Funny thing though, I did nothing on my husband's computer and it was OK as well - though he only used it for a short time this afternoon.

Things I had tried:
Ran sysfile check
Checking all add-ins were disabled and/or removed ones I didn't need.
Did a quick repair of office
Deleted all my temp files
Checked for print driver update
Checked for video driver update - there was one available but I thought there was more risk in doing this than leaving and left it as a last resort
Tried using apps in safe mode (had already tried this thanks Cookiegal)

Nevertheless I tried Safe mode again after all of the above and it seemed to work OK - I then tried in normal mode and it still worked. I noticed that it was the splwow.64 file loaded once I started adobe pdf... and I thought then it might "get stuck" but Winword still closed out of Task manager, even if the file splwow.64 remained - which eventually also closed out. Access did take a while longer to close from task Manager - it was checking for I/O on the network but after a minute or so it closed as well. Next checked husband's computer & it was working as well.

So scratching head as to why it suddenly righted itself as there was no further updates that I am aware of.... but let's see how long it lasts.....if I don't post back, good news. :)
 
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