I want to open 2 excel files in separate windows to view them side by side... but each time I try, it opens them in the same window

I open another instance of excel...simply click the excel icon on the task bar with the mouse wheel.  Done!  Or, if you don't have a wheel, left click and drag (swoosh) the icon.  A little window pops up.  Click on icon to run the instance again.  Hope this make sense!

This worked for me, on Windows XP Pro (SP3) / Office/Excel 2000.  I used Launchy to launch Excel again (though you should just be able to go to Start Menu->Programs and open it that way), and it gave me a new instance.  I could then click and drag out of Windows Explorer into either instance to get it in that instance.  Ba-da-bing!  Registry editing seems a bit extreme if you can just open a new instance

I have tried this too -- I run multiple monitors, and I want to be able to have ONE sheet of a workbook open on one monitor, and another open on the other. Tired old eyes work better this way sometimes!

BUT... I could not get this to work, and even when I'd tell Windows to set the displays to extended desktop, and manually stretch the EXCEL main window to cover both, I get toolbars and tabs on one monitor, and none on the other.

I tried doing a double-open -- open the file once, then open a second time -- but it opens it in the same main Windows window, does not let me drag it aside as some of these posts suggest.

So I went in to GODMODE, and found the ASSOCIATE FILETYPE WITH PROTOCOL OR PROGRAM menu, and noticed that filetype XLSX was associated with Microsoft Open XML Converter, and NOT with EXCEL itself (like the .xls files are).  I changed this back to EXCEL, and now each double-click on an XLSX file causes a separate instance of EXCEL to start in a separate window.

So my question: why was that default file type set to the XML converter? And... how can I get ONE copy of EXCEL to let me take a SHEET in a workbook and open it in a separate window that I can place OUTSIDE of the Excel window itself (in a second copy of the excel main window)?

I have tried this too -- I run multiple monitors, and I want to be able to have ONE sheet of a workbook open on one monitor, and another open on the other. Tired old eyes work better this way sometimes!

BUT... I could not get this to work, and even when I'd tell Windows to set the displays to extended desktop, and manually stretch the EXCEL main window to cover both, I get toolbars and tabs on one monitor, and none on the other.

I tried doing a double-open -- open the file once, then open a second time -- but it opens it in the same main Windows window, does not let me drag it aside as some of these posts suggest.

So I went in to GODMODE, and found the ASSOCIATE FILETYPE WITH PROTOCOL OR PROGRAM menu, and noticed that filetype XLSX was associated with Microsoft Open XML Converter, and NOT with EXCEL itself (like the .xls files are).  I changed this back to EXCEL, and now each double-click on an XLSX file causes a separate instance of EXCEL to start in a separate window.

So my question: why was that default file type set to the XML converter? And... how can I get ONE copy of EXCEL to let me take a SHEET in a workbook and open it in a separate window that I can place OUTSIDE of the Excel window itself (in a second copy of the excel main window)?

Definitely ... I run two monitors as well, which is also my main reason for wanting to do this.  Congrats on getting it to work.

I'm guessing that the reason that the Open XML converter was associated by default with .xlsx files is that you might have had a previous version of Excel installed on the machine?  The XML converter is for converting to an older format from the 2007 formats (a very handy help for me, as I use Office 2000, and it's a lot quicker and works better than opening up the file in OpenOffice.org 3.x+ and saving as an old format that way).  I had a trial version of Office 2007 on my machine, and noticed that it had also set the default action for .xlsx and .docx files to the Open XML converter.

As far as getting two sheets of the same workbook to open in separate copies of Excel, I would just go ahead and open your two instances of Excel, then click and drag the Excel file to open it in each of them.  Then, view one sheet in one instance, and the other sheet in the other instance.  You could also try clicking and dragging the sheet tab at bottom of the workbook from one instance to another (though I haven't actually tried this).

Only gotcha I can think of is that Excel might complain that you're trying to open an already open file and only let you open it as read-only the second time.  So, as long as you only want to actually make changes in one side at a time, you'd be alright ... you could swap the windows back and forth between monitors to be able to make the changes, or switch which sheet you're working on on the edit side.  But if you want to make changes to both sides at once, that may not be possible ... :(  Worth giving a shot, though.

A couple utilities I have found useful for working with Multiple Monitors on Windows ... Multimon taskbar (http://www.mediachance.com/free/multimon.htm) and Actual Multiple Monitors (http://www.actualtools.com/multiplemonitors/) ... each of them give you a little button that sits on the title bar of your windows, enabling you to click it and instantly move the window to the other monitor. Very handy!

(Of course, all this handy stuff is usually included for free in Linux desktop environments ... and I know that newer versions of Windows have gotten a bit better on desktop UI features. But I run XP when I have to be in M$-land for some reason, and hate popping for new Windows licenses if I don't have to, only to be penalized with higher resource requirements, software incompatibility issues, and the need to upgrade my hardware more frequently than I really want or need to. :) )