Instance

Instance
Multiple Instances
Opening multiple instances of Microsoft Excel.

The word instance can be defined as the number of occurrences of an event. Thus when you start Microsoft Excel for the first time, then it may said as the first instance of Microsoft Excel. When you open Microsoft Excel for the second time with the first instance already running, then it is said to be the second instance of Microsoft Excel.

Normally, applications are objects created by programming languages. So you can run multiple instances of the same application. But running multiple instance causes your CPU to allocate more memory. Thus the number of times you open an application depends on your CPU memory (RAM). As long as your CPU permits, you can keep on opening multiple instances of an application.

It is normally recommended that you don't run multiple instances of the same application. This is because running multiple instances not only act as a drag on your CPU but it is difficult for the user too to navigate through the applications. Thus unless it is necessarily required, you need not open multiple instances of an application. The above apply not only to Microsoft Excel, but almost for all applications, in general.

Opening Multiple Instances
To open an other instance of Microsoft Excel, just click the Excel icon on the desktop or select Microsoft Excel from Programs->Microsoft Office->Microsoft Excel

Possible errors and solutions:
Cannot open multiple instances of Microsoft Excel

• This may due to the fact that CPU is already full on memory and cannot allocate memory for the new instance (This is almost a rarity and would happen only if you are using a RAM less than 64 MB and have loaded quite a good number of applications).
• Some or all of the libraries required for Microsoft Excel cannot open (This may happen if you have loaded a lot of add-ins and COM automation at Excel start up. Reinstalling Microsoft Excel may sort out this problem)

I get a lot of message boxes when I open the second instance of Microsoft Excel

• You may have specified Excel to open a set of files at start up. Since they are already opened in the first instance, when Excel tries to reopen them at the second instance, it displays a message box indicating the files are already open. To solve this problem, try sticking to a single instance of Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Excel automatically opens a second instance

• When an external application such as email contains an Excel attachment, it may launch Excel again to display the contents. This is because,the external application may instruct to create a new instance of Microsoft Excel to load the file (You normally may not experience such problems with Outlook and other recognised software creators). To solve this, download the file to the computer and open it.
• If a new instance of Microsoft Excel is opened all of a sudden, then somebody might have scheduled to run it. Check Windows Scheduler for details.

I cannot open a file in the second instance of Microsoft Excel or my file open as read only

• By rule, a file with the same extension cannot be opened more than one time. Thus if you have opened file in one instance, you cannot open the same file in second instance. Also, if the file is shared on network and is opened by an other user, you cannot open it. To solve this, close the file and try reopening again or if you need to just look at the contents, open the file as read only.