Comments on: How to open a new instance of Excel 2007 workbooks

By: brian

brian — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:07:29 +0000

Thanks a lot. If you’re a Vista or Window 7 user, this is the ultimate fix. Now, my Excel thumbnails are appearing properly in the taskbar. This is a huge help for those of us that work with multiple Excel docs simultaneously in Vista and Windows 7. Thanks, again.

By: Clint

Clint — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:47:03 +0000

There is an issue with the fix in the zip file. It makes “Open” the default action for templates, but the default should really be “New”. That creates a new document from the template (which is what a template is for), rather than editing the template itself.

To fix this, save the following lines in a text file with a reg extension and run it:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template\shell]
@=”New_in_New_Excel_Instance”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template\shell\New_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”New in New Excel Instance”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template\shell\New_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\EXCEL.EXE\” /n \”%1\”"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template.8\shell]
@=”New_in_New_Excel_Instance”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template.8\shell\New_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”New in New Excel Instance”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template.8\shell\New_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\EXCEL.EXE\” /n \”%1\”"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.TemplateMacroEnabled\shell]
@=”New_in_New_Excel_Instance”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.TemplateMacroEnabled\shell\New_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”New in New Excel Instance”

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.TemplateMacroEnabled\shell\New_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\EXCEL.EXE\” /n \”%1\”"

By: Clint

Clint — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:02:37 +0000

Beautiful. Exactly what we needed (Excel2007 on WinXP) Thanks!

By: Dune

Dune — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:37:50 +0000

Just want to thank you for this nice trips. I was searching a solution from many months.

Office 2007 is really deplorable. Nothing usefull. just a lot of trouble.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:52:09 +0000

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

I can now finally use Excel on different desktops with VirtuaWin.

By: Rodney Bradey

Rodney Bradey — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:49:47 +0000

Doesn’t work with latest 2007 fixes with Vista, opens the xls in an existing instance.

By: Naters

Naters — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:52:42 +0000

Isn’t working on XP SP3 with Office 2007 SP2.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:38:49 +0000

Is there anything similar for Excel 2003?

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:26:46 +0000

Is there something that will work for Visio?

By: Make Excel Open Spreadsheets In A Separate Window | Lifehacker Australia

Make Excel Open Spreadsheets In A Separate Window | Lifehacker Australia — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:37:37 +0000

[...] How to open a new instance of Excel 2007 workboooks [Online Tech Tips] Tagged:exceloffice 2007registrywindows [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:22:57 +0000

To get this to work in 64-bit Vista, just open the .txt file and replace “Program Files” with “Program Files (x86)”. Works just fine for me after that.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:47:33 +0000

For Windows 7 x64 you have to edit the files and change Program Files to Program Files (x86).

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:15:12 +0000

Didn’t work for me. I ran the .reg file to make it the default and now when I try to open a .xls or .xlsx file Windows says that open the file because it doesn’t know what program created it. So I had to re-associate all Excel files to open with Excel in folder properties and they open now but all in the same instance. I re-ran the .reg file to make it the default again and didn’t have the file association problem but they still run in the same instance. I am running Excel 2007 SP2.

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:44:17 +0000

Surely there’s a way to get this working in 64-bit versions of Windows?

After seeing this on Lifehacker, I tried using the “Make Open In New Excel Instance Default” on Win7 64-bit and now I can’t double click on Excel files to open them. I have to right click and choose open. And even when I do that, they’re not showing up in separate instances.

Fortunately the undo file worked fine and everything’s back to normal.

By: Brad

Brad — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:42:51 +0000

How hard would this be to do for PowerPoint?