# Office 365 >  > [SOLVED] Excel 2016 Opening spreadsheet from a link shows blank spreadsheet.

## dflak

Here are the symptoms. Click on a link leading to an Excel spreadsheet. Select Open instead of Save. Excel launches and you get a blank page. There is no data grid and you may or may not get a ribbon. If you save the file and attempt to double click it from windows explorer you get the same result. If you set up Excel as an item in the send to menu and you send the file to Excel, it does open properly. Likewise if you open excel and navigate to the file, it will open normally.

I had to call Microsoft Tech support on this one. They took control of my machine and changed some options. It turned out I had to set some compatibility options. Here is the checklist they used: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2994633. 

As part of their troubleshooting, they turned off the three items in protected view. I turned them back on and I am not having any problem.

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