Excel Hangs After Colour Formatting Complete Fix Guide
You select a few cells, click Fill Colour, and Excel freezes for 20 to 30 seconds — every single time. It looks like a formatting problem, but on the machine in the video the real culprit was the default printer driver. Here is the complete diagnosis and fix, in the right order.
✍️ Technical Anshu🪟 Windows 10 / 11⏱️ 7 minute read
🎥 Watch the video — Excel hangs the moment colour formatting is applied, and changing the default printer fixes it live
The pattern is very specific: typing works, formulas calculate, files open — but the moment you apply colour formatting, Excel stops responding for half a minute. There are two honest suspects for this symptom. The first is the default printer driver, which Excel quietly consults while it formats and lays out cells; that is the cause the video demonstrates and fixes. The second is a workbook carrying far too much formatting baggage of its own. Test the printer first — it takes two minutes — and only open up the file if the hang follows the file, not the machine.
The symptom exactly as it appears in the video
You click: Home > Fill Color > Yellow
Excel title bar: Report.xlsx - Excel (Not Responding)
Freeze lasts: about 20 to 30 seconds ... then the colour applies
Repeats: on every formatting click, every time
The freeze strikes at the moment formatting is applied — not while typing, not while calculating. That timing is the biggest clue.
1
The Video Fix — Change the Default Printer
This is the fix demonstrated in the video, and it works because of how Excel renders formatting (explained in the next step). Change the default printer to a built-in virtual printer and test Excel again.
Open Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners (on Windows 10: Settings → Devices → Printers & scanners)
Note which printer is currently the default — you will want to know it later
Turn off the option Let Windows manage my default printer, so your choice stays fixed
Click Microsoft Print to PDF → Set as default
Go back to Excel and click the same Fill Colour again — if it applies instantly, the old default printer driver was the cause
2
Why a Printer Can Freeze Formatting at All
It sounds unrelated, but Excel leans on the default printer driver for the measurements it needs when it formats cells and lays out the sheet — the same reason Print Preview can freeze Excel on some machines.
When you format, Excel asks the default printer driver for rendering information and waits for its answer
A corrupt or outdated driver answers slowly — or a network printer that is switched off does not answer at all, and Excel waits out the timeout
That wait is your 20 to 30 second freeze, repeated on every formatting action
This is not really an Excel fault — Excel is blocked waiting on the driver
3
Fix the Real Printer Afterwards
Microsoft Print to PDF is a good test default, but you still need your real printer for actual printing. Repair it properly instead of abandoning it.
Remove the printer from Printers & scanners, then download a fresh driver for your exact model from the printer manufacturer's own website
Reinstall the printer, and print a test page from a simple app like Notepad first
If the printer is a network or Wi-Fi printer, confirm it is switched on and reachable before making it the default again
Set it back as default and repeat the Fill Colour test in Excel — if the freeze returns, the fresh driver install is still wrong, not Excel
Delete any stale printer entries you no longer use — an old, unreachable network printer left as default is the classic setup for this bug
4
If the Hang Only Happens in One File, Suspect the File
If the printer change does not help — or the freeze happens in one workbook on every PC — the cause is inside the file: formatting bloat. This is the second, separate disease, and it has its own surgery.
Open a brand new blank workbook and apply a fill colour — if a blank file is instant, Excel and the machine are fine and the file is guilty
In the slow file, press Ctrl + End — if Excel jumps to a cell like row 1048576 when your data ends at row 500, whole columns or rows were painted once and the used range exploded
Select the rows below your data, right-click → Delete, do the same for the columns to the right, then save — the used range resets on save
If the file also throws a Too many different cell formats error, the workbook's style list itself is overloaded and needs a style cleanup, not just a trim
5
What Not to Waste Your Time On
The video makes this point from real helpdesk experience: users burn one or two hours on the wrong repairs because the symptom points at Excel. Be honest about what cannot fix a driver wait.
Uninstalling and reinstalling MS Office — the driver Excel waits on is still the same afterwards
Registry cleaners and 'Excel repair' downloads from random sites — they do not touch the cause and add risk
Blaming the file's formulas — a calculation problem lags on edits and opens, not specifically on the Fill Colour click
Test in order: printer default first, blank-file test second, file surgery third
🔴 Work on a copy of any important file before deleting rows, columns or styles. And one honesty note: if printing itself freezes every application, you have a general printer problem — the Excel symptom is just where you noticed it first.
🎥 Watch the Complete Fix in the Video
See the freeze happen and the default printer change fix it, live on a real machine — plus the lesson every IT support engineer learns from this case.
Why does Excel freeze only when I apply colour, not while typing?
Typing and calculating barely involve the printer driver, but formatting and layout do — Excel asks the default printer driver for rendering measurements. If that driver is corrupt, or the default printer is a network printer that is off, Excel waits for an answer that takes 20 to 30 seconds to time out. That is why the freeze is glued to the formatting click.
The printer change fixed it. Can I leave Microsoft Print to PDF as my default forever?
You can, and nothing breaks — Excel and other apps will work normally. The only catch is practical: when you actually print, you must pick your real printer in the print dialog each time. The better ending is to reinstall the real printer's driver cleanly, set it back as default, and confirm the freeze does not return.
I changed the default printer and it still hangs. What next?
Then the cause is probably inside the workbook. Open a new blank file and test a fill colour there — a blank file separates machine problems from file problems. If the blank file is fast, your workbook carries formatting bloat: check where Ctrl + End lands, delete the excess formatted rows and columns, save, and if you also see a 'Too many different cell formats' error, clean up the workbook's cell styles.
This guide is based on the Technical Anshu Excel hanging after colour formatting video • Stuck on a step? Ask in the video comments — you will get an answer there 🙏