Disable the Research Task Pane in Excel/Office

I have fought with this myself for years, but I finally found the answer:

1. From Word, press Alt + F11 to open the VBA Editor.

2. Press Ctrl + G to open the Immediate Window.

3. Type this line and press Enter:

   Application.CommandBars("Research").Enabled = False
   

Turns off the Research Pane/Pain:

Go to Add/Remove Programs ---> Microsoft Office ---> Add or Remove Features ---> expand Office Tools ---> disable Research Explorer Bar (there's a red X which you select to disable it.

Worked for me and I was delighted to get rid of the damned thing.

As I understand it you can still access the Research Pane manually (e.g. clicking on its icon). I have not bothered with this to manual access to check it out because I'm hoping to never see this pane again.

Do you mean to stop the task pane from appearing at Excell startup or disable it altogether?

If you want to disable it, I can't help you, sorry, but if you want it to stop appearing go to "Tools", "Options" menu, then in the View tab, and uncheck "Startup Task Pane."

If it doesn't works, have a look at http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000753.htm; I'm told you may have to manually edit the registry in some cases. (Danger, Will Robinson!)