Excel 2024 does not highlight selected cells or rows. Reinstall did not help

**Arkady Bravshtein,

If all the above (suggested by Norah-L) didn't help try the following:

**1. Disable Office User Interface Animations

In recent builds of Office, UI feedback animations cause input lag and invisible highlight bounding boxes.

Open Excel and go to File > Options > Accessibility.

Look for the Display options section.

Uncheck "Provide feedback with animations" (or turn off "Show animations in Office").

Click OK and restart Excel.

2. Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration (Registry Fix)

In Office 2021/2024, the hardware acceleration toggle was removed from the standard settings GUI and must be toggled via the Windows Registry if GPU rendering is failing:

Close all Office applications.

Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter.

Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common

Right-click Common, select New > Key, and name it Graphics.

Inside the Graphics key, right-click the right pane, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it DisableHardwareAcceleration.

Double-click DisableHardwareAcceleration and set its Value data to 1.

Click OK, close Registry Editor, and reopen Excel.

3. Adjust High-DPI Scaling Settings

If the employee is using multi-monitors, a laptop dock, or displays set to custom scaling (e.g., 125% or 150%):

Close Excel. Right-click the Excel shortcut (or excel.exe) and choose Properties.

Select the Compatibility tab.

Click Change high DPI settings.

Check Override high DPI scaling behavior and set Scaling performed by: to System (Enhanced) or Application.

Click Apply and launch Excel.

4. Clear Excel Display Cache (Delete User Options Key)

If a corrupted user profile configuration survived reinstallations:

Close Excel.

Open regedit (Win + R).

Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel

Rename the Options folder to Options.old.

Restart Excel (this regenerates clean user defaults).

1. Disable Office User Interface Animations

In recent builds of Office, UI feedback animations cause input lag and invisible highlight bounding boxes.

1. Open Excel and go to File > Options > Accessibility. Windows OS Hub
2. Look for the Display options section.
3. Uncheck "Provide feedback with animations" (or turn off "Show animations in Office"). Reddit
4. Click OK and restart Excel.

2. Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration (Registry Fix)

In Office 2021/2024, the hardware acceleration toggle was removed from the standard settings GUI and must be toggled via the Windows Registry if GPU rendering is failing:

1. Close all Office applications.
2. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
3. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common
4. Right-click Common, select New > Key, and name it Graphics.
5. Inside the Graphics key, right-click the right pane, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it DisableHardwareAcceleration.
6. Double-click DisableHardwareAcceleration and set its Value data to 1.
7. Click OK, close Registry Editor, and reopen Excel.

3. Adjust High-DPI Scaling Settings

If the employee is using multi-monitors, a laptop dock, or displays set to custom scaling (e.g., 125% or 150%):

1. Close Excel. Right-click the Excel shortcut (or excel.exe) and choose Properties.
2. Select the Compatibility tab.
3. Click Change high DPI settings.
4. Check Override high DPI scaling behavior and set Scaling performed by: to System (Enhanced) or Application.
5. Click Apply and launch Excel.

4. Clear Excel Display Cache (Delete User Options Key)

If a corrupted user profile configuration survived reinstallations:

1. Close Excel.
2. Open regedit (Win + R).
3. Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel
4. Rename the Options folder to Options.old.
5. Restart Excel (this regenerates clean user defaults).

Michael (Micky) Avidan MVP – Excel (2009-2027)

ISRAEL