Windows – Make Excel 2003 Open Spreadsheets in new instances

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In Excel 2003, It seems to be putting each spreadsheet I open into the existing Excel application as a new window. this makes it very difficult in a dual monitor set up to put one spreadsheet on each monitor.

Is there a way to force Excel to make a new instance of itself every time I open a new spreadsheet?

Best Answer

This will do what you want:

  1. Open the Registry Editor, browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open

  2. Delete the ddeexec key, (or just rename it if you are worried - I just renamed it and it worked)

  3. Click on the "command" key and replace the /e on the end of the (Default) and command strings in that key with "%1"

    The quotes around %1 are important and must be added.

    After the change the lines should look like this: 

    (Default)   REG_SZ   "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office11\EXCEL.EXE" "%1 

command   REG_MULTI_SZ   ']gAVn-}f(ZXfeAR6.jiEXCELFiles>!De@]Vz(r=f`1lfq`?R& "%1"

  4. Make the same changes to Excel.Sheet.12

Now both .xls and .xlsx should open in new windows with no errors.

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