The computer has been restarted, same issue.
My contact tells me that all the other workstations in their office are running Excel V.2016. This computer is running V.2019.
(I would have thought the newer version should not be giving us headaches.)

Also, this does not get fixed if we run as SYS user.

I also sent this issue to Tech Support at Softrak.
Dhanush tells me that: We couldn’t be able to duplicate this issue, since this is an environment related issue.

So, the workaround at this point is that the user has another workstation in the office if he needs to perform an Excel Direct, but it is annoying.