How to Open Excel Files in Separate Windows Automatically

I was asked how set up Excel so that opening individual Excel files would open in separate Excel Windows. By default, it seems Excel 2007 and 2010 open separate files in the same instance of Excel. In technical terms, Excel uses MDI instead of SDI. I searched and found several posts that basically said “can’t be done” or “not supported”. I found some others that outlined some Registry tweaks. They were slightly different in their instructions and a little hard to follow. I tried some of the changes and have documented what has worked for me on multiple systems with different versions of Windows as well as Excel.

Setting up your system to open Excel files in separate windows

If you have Excel 2007 or Excel 2010, you can make a change on your system so that when you open an Excel file it will always open in a new Excel window. This is handy for working with multiple worksheets – especially if you have more than one monitor. The changes needed will require making some changes in the Windows Registry.

Changes to make in the Registry

If you’re not familiar with or comfortable with making changes to the Windows Registry, read the Warning note above again.

The changes below have worked on Windows 7 and Windows 8. I’m also running both Excel 2007 and Excel 2010.

Step 1 – Add a parameter

Change the Default key data value of the following

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command

by appending the following characters (including the quotes)

"%1"

When done, you should have something similar to the following:

 Step 2 – Rename the command key

Rename the following key

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command\command

to the following

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command\command-original

Step 3 – Rename the ddeexec key

Rename the following key

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec

to the following

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec-original

Step 4 – Add a parameter

Change the Default key data value of the following

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command

by appending the following characters (including the quotes)

"%1"

When done, you should have something similar to the following:

Step 5 – Rename the command key

Rename the following key

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command\command

to the following

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command\command-original

Step 6 – Rename the ddeexec key

Rename the following key

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec

to the following

HKCR\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec-original

When you’re done with the changes your registry should look like the following image.

I’m finding it’s way less frustrating working with multiple files in Excel now.

There you go.

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