Wanted: Double Clicking an .xls file's icon starts a new instance of Excel

[Guest]

If Excel is already running when I double click the icon for an .xls file,
it opens the file as a new window in the existing instance of Excel.

I would like to change the file type for .xls files
(Explorer: Tools/Folder Options/File Types/choose .xls/Advanced)
so that a new instance of Excel would be created.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Dave Peterson]

This may help (or hurt).

If you open files by double clicking on them in windows explorer....

You could try:

Tools|options|General tab|Ignore other applications (check it)

Then double click on the workbook in windows explorer.

And be aware that turning this setting on sometimes gives errors with workbooks
that contain spaces in their path/name:

C:\my documents\excel\my book.xls

The error will look kind of like:
cannot find c:\my ..
then
cannot find documents\excel\my
then
cannot find book.xls

Or it may just open excel and not show you the file that you clicked on.