After over a year of using MS Office 2010 (a couple months in Beta, and now the RTM), and several years of using 2007, I have become really frustrated with Excel opening in the same instance. This “feature” was implemented in Office 2007 to save memory, and is a great feature if you are working on alike notebooks. I have two monitors and often like to compare my notebooks side-by-side, and I can’t believe I have ignored this problem as long as I have – but I now have a solution!
This fix works by adding certain keys into your registry. It will not only allow you to double-click on an icon and have it open in a seperate window, but also adds a neat little Right Click dialog that reads “Open in New Excel Instance”.
Open in New Excel Instance
The following link is for Office 2010. To apply the fix, download the .zip file below and open the .txt file, save it as a .reg file and run it. If you want it to work with Office 2007, just find and replace the words “Office14″ with “Office12″ and it should work the same. If you are running a 32 bit version of Office on a 64 bit Operating System (Office is installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office) then make those changes and it should work the same as well.
Download HERE
A special thanks to the original author of this fix. His post is aimed more at Excel 2007 and 32 bit XP and is located here.
Brad Laszlo is a Systems Engineer for Prestige Technologies, reigning from Michigan. Brad is specialized in server configuration and manipulation using both Microsoft and Linux technologies, and considers himself to be a novice tech writer (and Bio writer). Brad can be reached at bradlaszlo[at]prestigetech[dot]com or by visiting http://www.prestigetech.com 
oh men! your a genius! thanks! it really works!
Thanks for sharing this! I tested it successfully on Windows 7 x64 and Office 2010 x64.
Hi
Could you please also write a regfile where open in new instance is not the default behaviour? This would be helpful!
This didn’t work- the option was there in the right-click menu, but it did not open in a new instance. There are 2 tabs in the taskbar, like before, but they still open in the same window.
Can you make a file to undo all the changes made by that .reg file?
@Dan
I have updated the zip file to include a .reg file to undo all changes. You said it didn’t work and I am curious, what operating system and version of Office are you using. Perhaps we don’t have the versions correct and we can simply modify the reg file to work for you?
Hi, thanks very much for your quick response. I am running Office 2010 on 64-bit windows 7.
I went back and checked, and I believe I have the 32-bit office installed on my 64 bit Windows 7 system. I tried modifying the file as you described, just changing ‘program files’ to ‘program files *x86), and then ran the .reg file again.
Interestingly, this removed the right-click option completely. I would love to get this fix to work, so I’m open to any suggestions you may have. Were there other changes I need to make to the .reg file?
@Dan
You have the same setup as I do, so that file shouldn’t need any modification. Just make sure evrything says “Office14″ and check both of your Program Files folders to make sure Office is actually installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office
Hi Brad,
Thanks for the script. I have 32bit Office installed and updated the script with (x86).
Problem is now when I double click on an excel file it always opens in a new instance. I’d prefer to reuse the current instance if I double click and only open new instance by selecting from context menu.
thanks,
Fred
Can you have it show the option of new instance for .csv files as well?
Windows 7 32bit with office 2010
Great stuff! Thanks much.
This worked great, thanks so much!!
Worked perfectly! Thanks!!!
Perfect! I love you man!
Fantastic
Well done thank you
When I first got my new computer, the default behavior was to open each spreadsheet in a different window. Something changed and it’s now opening in the same instance which I do not like. HELP! Is there a something somewhere I changed?
@Melissa: If you upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2007 the default behavior would have changed. Even updating Office 2007 might have made that behavior change, because it did for me. I just reapplied the .reg files and I was back in business. I would suggest you do the same and I am confident it will go back to normal.
Fantastic – I was chafing at the loss of this ability – not only excel works now, but also word and …. Autocad !! Thanks very much
Excellent work, HOWEVER:
Why did you set the default to open in new instance and the right click context menu to open in new instance? Shouldn’t one of them be the other way around?
Ie default open in new instance and right click open in existing instance (or vice versa)?
Due to quite a few comments from people asking for the Open in New Instance to NOT be the default behavior and to just add it to the right-click context menu, I have added additional scripts to the .zip file. Enjoy!
Nice job, but Undo is misleading and dangerous.
“Undo” doesn’t undo, it tells your system to try to open files using Office 2007 64bit that it expects to find installed on the C: drive.
For those of us who use C: drive for the OS (ie SSD), and P: drive for Programs, you need to modify all of the scripts, including UNDO.
So for those who may have accidentally done damage, the Undo script needs to be modified to consider:
Office 2007 = Office12
Office 2010 = Office14
64bit version = “Program Files”
32bit version = “Program Files (x86)”
C: needs to reflect the harddrive that you installed Office onto.
If you are uncertain, Go to the search menu of the Start Button, and type “excel.exe”, rightclick and choose Properties…It will show the Location.
Works great for opening Excel docs in separate instance. I assume the answer is ‘no,’ but is there any way to open them in the same instance, but just in separate windows? This would allow proper copying, pasting, and linking between spreadsheets. Is this just not possible with Excel 2010?
I see the value in also opening in separate instances (crash protection, Undo’s are confined to the instance, etc.), but frequently I want the interconnectivity, even though I would never want 2 or more Excel spreadsheets to open on the same MDI window.
As an aside, any idea why MS doesn’t have Excel work like Word and now PowerPoint (separate windows, same instance)? Does anyone ever want multiple documents in the same window? Seems that’s only a negative.
Oh, and by the way, the new version with the right-click option, that leaves the default still opening in the same instance is actually for Excel 2007, not 2010. I needed to change the entries to Office14. It’s also for the 64 bit edition (by file locations, need to add “(x86)” to the pathname for 32 bit version), where according to MS stats, most users run the 32 bit version (even on 64 bit Windows) for compatibility with third party add-ons. Just an FYI for other downloaders.
Im using win7 & office 2010. works fine but i get a msg
“Personal.xlsb is locked for editing”
How can i get rid of that.
But thanks for the post. Great info…glad it atleast works!!
thanks! you are my saviour! saves me tons of time!
/D
If I could +1 this I would. I rarely use Excel, but recently I’ve had to start working with some spreadsheets. The way it opens in the same instance was infuriating! Thank you so much for posting this!
Thank you thank you! I run Office 2010 Professional 32bit on Win 7 Pro 64 bit OS. With the two modifications of adding the X86 to Program Files, and then changing the Office12 to Office14, it worked SUPER!!! Thanks again for such great work. Below is the script for the Add Open In New Excel Instance with the two modifications noted above. Make sure you even copy the note about “Windows Registry Editor…..” (I hope this posts OK)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Backup\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Backup\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.OpenDocumentSpreadsheet.12\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.OpenDocumentSpreadsheet.12\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.SheetBinaryMacroEnabled.12\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.SheetBinaryMacroEnabled.12\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template.8\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Template.8\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.TemplateMacroEnabled\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.TemplateMacroEnabled\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Workspace\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance]
@=”Open in New Excel Instance”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Workspace\shell\Open_in_New_Excel_Instance\command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Office\\Office14\\EXCEL.EXE\” \”%1\”"
So I gave it a try and while I could get the right click menu to open in a new instance… it never did. It always kept opening in the same instance I had open. Any thoughts? I hope we can get this to work!
Thanks!
Thanks,
It works well for me (Office 2010, x86)