Office 2007, Windows Server 2008 x64.
How can I make Excel so that when I double-click a document, it opens in a new Excel instance, so that I can easily view them side-by-side as separate windows and not using the View-Arrange All functionality? Now I have to go to the task bar, click on one document to see it and then click on the other document in the task bar to switch to that one. As the alternative, I close one document, open a new Excel window, then drag the document in there.
Thank you.
There is a very nice walk-through of modifying the registry here. It will be slightly different under Server 2008 but similar enough to hopefully make sense:
regedit.exe. Right click on the regedit.exe file then click on "Run as administrator" option.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xls key. You can do this by expanding the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT node, then start typing .xls, or just search for .xls, or just scroll down and hunt for it. You should see something like this:
Look at the (Default) value, in the screenshot above, that is Excel.Sheet.8. Now, go to that key in HKEY_CLASSESS_ROOT. In other words, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8.
Excel.Sheet.8 key and you’ll see that it has several keys under it. One of those keys is named shell. Go ahead and expand the shell key too. you’ll see something like this:
Notice that the keys under shell correspond to the options you see when you right click on an excel file in Explorer. The idea is that we want to add an “open in new instance” option here. So, right click on the shell key, then choose New->Key.
Give the key any name you like. For example, OpenInNewInstance. When the key is created, double click on (Default) to give it a default value. The default value will be the option that you will see on the right click menu. So, for this example, we’ll use Open In New Instance. You should have something like this:
OpenInNewInstance. This time, name it as command. To set the default value of the command key, you will need the path to the EXCEL.EXE file. In Windows 7 64-bit and Office 2010 set the value to this:C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" "%1
If you have the same setup as mine, you can just copy the above. Otherwise, make necessary adjustments to match your setup. You should now see something like this.
.xls file. You should now see your “Open in New Instance” option.
Click on “Open In New Instance” and Excel opens the workbook in a new application window. Right click on another .xls file and open it in a new instance, Excel opens it in yet another application window.
.xls file in Explorer, you want Excel to open it in a new application instance, then, there’s one simple step to do. Go to the shell key and set it’s default value to OpenInNewInstance
The instructions above allows you to add an option to the right click menu of *.xls files. Excel 2007/2010 files have a different extension (.xlsx or .xlsm). Just follow the same steps, but look for the correct extension (xlsx or xlsm instead of xls) in #2.
I see an answer offering a solution using regedit.exe has already been chosen as best. However, I have an easy way that doesn't require editing registry.
After you've opened the first Excel document, find the icon for it in the task bar and right-click it. Choose Microsoft Office Excel 2007. A new Excel document will open. From there, use the main menu to open the second document. Obviously, you can open a third, fourth, etc. the same way.
I found a simple way, having had the same issue: Just go to Control Panel -> Folder Options, and switch from "Open Every Folder in the Same Window" to "Open Every Folder in a New Window" (or similar, I'm translating from German Windows 7 settings here)
Go to My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > File Types > and Choose XLSX (XLSX for 2007 or XLS for 2003)
Click Advanced button
Uncheck "browse in same window" in advanced window.
Then highlight Open and click Edit
Make a note of these settings so you can revert back if needed
Make sure in the Action box it says &Open
Check the box next to use DDE
Remove anything that is in DDE Message box and DDE Application Not Running box.
There was a working solution for Windows XP here, using a registry fix. But it says that it only works in 32-bit OS. I am curious though, if you go in Start...Run and type "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE" "C:\Stuff\sheet.xlsx" does it open in the same window or a new one?
Because that was what this 32-bit hack was, the default open command used DDE open(%1) to provide the filename, which always used any existing window, while this direct %1 argument method without DDE opened a new window.
Just my 2 cents. Might very well not work.
