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Excel opens in Excel Viewer

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10 replies

by johnnyextreme 1 view

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NT Workstation - double clicking an .xls file causes the file to open in Excel Viewer instead of Excel. If I shift+right click and select Open With, then check the "Always" checkbox and select Excel to open the file then they will open in Excel, butif there are any spaces in the file's path then it tries to open everything before the space, like 'C:\WINNT\My Documents\new file.xls' will give error messages stating Excel can't find C:\WINNT\My.xls - click OK then it says it can't find New.xls, then it can't find file.xls, then it opens. How do I correct this?

10 replies

by jacq

probably the default application which is registered for the "open" action of the filetype .xls is changed from excel to excel viewer (maybe because if installing this viewer after installing excel).

you can change it back by opening my computer.
select view->options
select the file-types tab
find the excel file types (at "M" from Microsoft excel)
select edit
select the open action
and edit this

make sure the link point to excel.exe
in my case there is a /e flag on the command line
the use dde is checked
and the dde message is [open("%1")]

probably there will be more filetypes changed

hope this helps

by johnnyextreme

Already checked MIME type (application/x-msexcel) and application used to open ("C:\WINNT\Programs Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /e) and it is the same as all other NT workstations on my network, still need help here.

by it_cowboy

Sounds to me like the files are trying to open under DOS rules, as its taking the space as the end of the file.

What version of Excel and Excel Viewer are you running?

Does this problem only happen with Excel?

Not sure where it the setting is, but it may point you in the right direction.

Good luck!

by it_cowboy

Try starting excel with a "/regserver" switch (without the quotes).

This forces Excel to register itself and then quit. Use this switch when you want Excel to rewrite all of its registry keys and reassociate itself with Excel files, such as workbooks, charts, and so on.

by johnnyextreme

Greg J's solution was quick, easy and right on target. I clicked on Start, selected Run, typed in 'Excel.exe /regserver' and Excel reinstalled itself without any intervention necessary - when the installer box went away I tried some of the files that I'd had problems with and they opened without any fuss. If Greg J would submit something I could award the 500 points to him.

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