Excel 2003 on Vista / Multiple Instances

[ThomW]

I apologize in advance if this has already been addressed and I just couldn't find the answer by searching for it...

I have Excel 2003 and Vista 64 bit (which actually seems to matter here).

I click a spreadsheet and it opens OK.
I click another spreadsheet on my desktop and it opens in the SAME instance; I want a fresh instance.

In XP I could fix it this way:
Open Windows Explorer, Tools, Options, File Types
Scroll down to XLS
Select Advance Button
Click on OPEN in the Actions window, Then Edit
On the 2nd line for application used add "%1".
Example ...\Excel.exe" /e "%1"
Now DeSelect Use DDE

Life was good

Along came Vista and it did away with file associations.

I found and tried a registry setting as follows:
Delete the following lines in the registry:
HKCR\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec
HKCR\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\ddeexec
and change the below like shown:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\command
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE /e “%1″
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\EXCEL.EXE /e “%1″

BUT it didn't work. Clicking worksheets on my desktop opened separate instances of Excel OK, but it didn't open the worksheets!
So I unregistered are reregistered Excel and now I back to the previous (undesirable to me) behavior.

Does anyone know about the .8 and .12 in the above?
More importantly, does anyone know the registry fix for Vista 64 to cause Excel to open worksheets in separate instances when you click them?

A BIG THANKS in advance if you can help me with this! /Thom

 

[ThomW]

Re: Excel 2003 on Vista 64 / Multiple Instances

I found another post that mentions checking Tools | Options | General | Ignore other applications.

That kills DDE alright, but Excel opens with no spreadsheet and the message "Cannot find file..." - unless another spreadsheet is already open!

Very strange indeed, Microsoft. Why not give Excel users the same capability Word users have by default. Please gather your UI designers together. /Thom

 

[ThomW]

With respect to the question about .8 and .12, I found the following in a post from Microsoft...

Excel 97: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Excel
Excel 2000: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Excel
Excel 2002: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Excel
Excel 2003: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Excel

Because I have Excel 2003, I'm wondering why I have 5, 8, and 12 values in my registry settings... 8-|

BTW, I meant "So I unregistered and reregistered Excel..." above. Sorry about the typo! /Thom