Home → Troubleshooting → All Products: Startup → '... requires Excel 2007 or higher.'

I launch my Palisade software, and I get one of these messages: @RISK requires Excel 2007 or higher. BigPicture requires Excel 2007 or higher. Evolver requires Excel 2007 or higher. NeuralTools requires Excel 2007 or higher. PrecisionTree requires Excel 2007 or higher. StatTools requires Excel 2007 or higher. TopRank requires Excel 2007 or higher.
There is no need to add Palisade add-ins to Excel's active add-ins list; it's enough that they are not disabled. Now use the desktop icon (if available) or the Start Menu group called Palisade DecisionTools to launch @RISK or whichever application you were trying to use.

To check your sub-version of @RISK for Project within 4.1.4, navigate to the Palisade installation folder, then to subfolder RISKPJ41, and double-click the Version History file. Office 365 Excel (except pre-release and 'Office Insider' builds) (1) (1) Excel 2019 (1) (1) Excel 2016; Excel 2013 32- or 64-bit; Excel 2010 64-bit. The DecisionTools Suite is an integrated set of programs for risk analysis and decision making under uncertainty that runs in Microsoft Excel. The DecisionTools Suite includes @RISK for Monte Carlo simulation, PrecisionTree for decision trees, and TopRank for “what if” sensitivity analysis.

Applies to:
All products, release 7.0.0 or newer

I launch my Palisade software, and I get one of these messages:

@RISK requires Excel 2007 or higher.

BigPicture requires Excel 2007 or higher.

Evolver requires Excel 2007 or higher.

NeuralTools requires Excel 2007 or higher.

PrecisionTree requires Excel 2007 or higher.

StatTools requires Excel 2007 or higher.

TopRank requires Excel 2007 or higher.

Beginning with release 7.0.0, @RISK and our other software require an Excel version that uses the ribbon, rather than the older-style menus. If you're actually running Excel 2003 or earlier, you need to upgrade to a more recent Excel. You'll find a full list of compatible versions in Windows and Office Versions Supported by Palisade.

But I actually do have a later version of Excel!

In that case, please work through this checklist:

Do you have a System Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareWOW6432NodePalisadeExcel Path, or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwarePalisadeExcel Path, that points to an old or nonexistent version of Excel? If so, right-click Excel Path and select Delete. Then, when you next run our software, it should connect automatically to your recent Excel.
If that System Registry key doesn't exist, creating it may solve the problem. For instructions, see Which Version of Excel Is Opened by Palisade Software?
You may be getting a security prompt when Palisade software tries to load itself into Excel. This can occur, for example, when you had two versions of Excel installed, and you uninstalled the one that was previously used with Palisade software. To give you a chance to respond to that prompt, follow this procedure:
1. Run Excel only, not Palisade software.
2. Click File » Open. Navigate to C:Program Files (x86)Palisade or C:Program FilesPalisade, whichever exists.
3. Inside that folder, click the product folder for the product you're trying to run: RISK7, StatTools7, etc.
4. Double-click the main XLA file for the product you're trying to run: Risk.xla, StatTools.xla, etc. (The .XLA extensions may be visible or hidden, depending on your Windows settings.)
5. You should now see a permission prompt. Check (tick) the box that says to trust all from this publisher. The software should then finish loading its ribbon.
Do you open Excel via some sort of redirection software, such as OpenWith? If so, please follow the directions in Which Version of Excel Is Opened by Palisade Software? The System Registry key you create must point to the real Excel, not the redirector, and Excel must be installed locally on this computer.
If the problem remains after following the bullets above, run a repair of Microsoft Office and restart Windows.

Last edited: 2017-08-31

@RISK and PrecisionTree
in Oil and Gas

@RISK is widely used in Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Utilities, and Engineering Services. Download and install a free trial version of the DecisionTools Suite (including @RISK and PrecisionTree) to view the models in full.

@RISK Models

Production Forecasting
This is a simple model forecasting production for a particular oil well. The estimated reserves within the well are uncertain and are represented with a Lognormal distribution function. The mean is 500,000 STB and the standard deviation is 50,000 STB.

The output in the model is the NPV of the reserves for the first 10 years of production. Other factors considered include the decline rate, the gas-oil ratio (GOR), the prices of oil and gas, as well as the rate of increase of the prices of oil and gas. The only input factor that contains an @RISK probability distribution function is reserves, but you could make the model more realistic by using distribution functions to describe the decline rate, GOR, price of oil, etc.

Simple Volumetric Reserves
This model calculates simple volumetric reserves, N=AhR. The three input cells for A, h, and R contain Triang distributions. The single output cell, Reserves, is the product of the inputs, scaled down by 10^6. After simulation, the resulting distribution for N is skewed to the right.

This example was taken from Decisions Involving Uncertainty: An @RISK Tutorial for the Petroleum Industry by James Murtha, published by Palisade Corporation, where a detailed, step-by-step explanation can be found.

Exponential Decline
This model examines the familiar production forecasting model for oil and gas wells, the exponential decline curve.
The standard equation, q = qie-at (3.3), can be used with random variables for both qi (the initial production rate, sometimes called IP) and a (the constant decline rate). Here the model has an additional parameter, t (time), which makes the output (Rate, STB/YR) more complicated than the volumetric reserves output.

No longer do we just want a distribution of numbers for output. Instead we want a distribution of forecasts or graphs. The worksheet has two input cells, IP and Decline, and a column of outputs for the Rate of production in STB/YR over 15 years.

After simulation you can generate a summary graph like that shown in the model. This graph shows uncertainty over the 15 year period. The shaded region represents one standard deviation on each side of the mean. The dotted curves represent the 5th and 95th percentiles. Thus, between these dotted curves is a 90% confidence interval. We can think of the band as being made up of numerous decline curves, each of which resulted from choices of qi and a.

Production and Economic Forecast
using Exponential Decline
This model forecasts production, revenues, and present value based on exponential decline. The exponential decline pattern for oil production is represented using the formula:

q = qI*exp(-at)
where qi is the annual production for the first year and a is the (fixed) annual percentage decline rate.

Uncertain input factors include:

Yearly production (YrlProd), represented by a Lognorm distribution
Decline rate (Declrate), represented by a Lognorm distribution
GOR (constant Gas-Oil-Ratio), represented by Triang distribution
Price of gas, represented by a Normal distribution
Price of oil, represented by a Normal distribution
Rate of increase of oil an

Palisade Decision Tools Excel