Opening an Excel worksheet by double-clicking the filename

[Mike Reemsnyder]

When one of my teachers, running Windows XP Professional and Office 2003,
double clicks an Excel spreadsheet file, it opens Excel but not the file.
She has to go to File, Open, and choose the file. It just started doing
this, and she believes she hasn't changed anything.

Thanks for any help,
Mike

 

[Guy Kerr]

What I would do is check to make sure your File Registration information is
correct. File Registration is what tells the OS which application opens
which files based on their file extension.

Open up Windows Explorer, choose TOOLS, FOLDER OPTIONS, FILE TYPES. I would
compare the settings for DOC files (assuming you have Word on this computer
too) to the XLS files settings to make sure they are similar.

You may find something there that doesn't look right. But I wouldn't "play
around" in there unless you know what you're doing.

I just did a Google search on "double-click file opens excel but not
document" and came up with this that sounds like I was on the right track:
http://blog.edogg.com/index.php?/archives/7-Excel-opens,-but-the-file-doesnt.html

 

[Dave Peterson]

Sometimes one of these works when you're having trouble with double clicking on
the file in windows explorer:

Tools|Options|General|Uncheck "Ignore other applications"
(xl2003 menus)

or
Office Button|Excel Options|Advanced|General|Uncheck "Ignore other applications"
(xl2007)

--- or ---

Close Excel and
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /unregserver
then
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /regserver

The /unregserver & /regserver stuff resets some of the windows registry to
excel's factory defaults.

 

[Gord Dibben]

Try the usual fix for this.

Tools>Options>General Uncheck "Ignore Other Applications etc."

In 2007 that would be Button>Excel Options>Advanced>General

If no joy with that................

Close Excel first and On the Windows Taskbar

1) Start>Run "excel.exe /unregserver"(no quotes)>OK.
2) Start>Run "excel.exe /regserver"(no quotes)>OK.

See the space between exe and /regserver

You might have to designate a full path to excel.exe.

In that case Start>Run "C:\yourpath\excel.exe" /regserver(quotes
required)>OK.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP