Another solution without changing default registry options
open regedit and browse to the key [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open], right click on the "Open" folder and select export. Save this on the desktop as a .reg file. On the new .reg file on the desktop right click the file and select edit. you
will have something that looks like this...
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open]
@="&Open"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command]
@=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /dde "
"command"=hex(7):78,00,62,00,27,00,42,00,56,00,66,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,\
00,34,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,4d,00,4b,00,4b,00,53,00,6b,00,45,00,58,00,\
43,00,45,00,4c,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,3e,00,75,00,32,00,42,00,65,\
00,54,00,2c,00,38,00,58,00,5b,00,3d,00,5d,00,39,00,3d,00,3d,00,2c,00,2a,00,\
29,00,4e,00,6e,00,5d,00,20,00,2f,00,64,00,64,00,65,00,00,00,00,00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec]
@="[open("%1")]"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec\application]
@="Excel"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddeexec\topic]
@="system"
now just add the word NEW , where you see the bold NEW below and change the /dde (underlined & bold above) to /e "%1" (underlined & bold below)
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open New ]
@="&Open New "
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open New \command]
@=""C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1""
"commandNew "=hex(7):78,00,62,00,27,00,42,00,56,00,66,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,\
00,34,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,21,00,4d,00,4b,00,4b,00,53,00,6b,00,45,00,58,00,\
43,00,45,00,4c,00,46,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,73,00,3e,00,75,00,32,00,42,00,65,\
00,54,00,2c,00,38,00,58,00,5b,00,3d,00,5d,00,39,00,3d,00,3d,00,2c,00,2a,00,\
29,00,4e,00,6e,00,5d,00,20,00,2f,00,64,00,64,00,65,00,00,00,00,00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open New \ddeexecNew ]
@="[open("%1")]"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open New \ddeexecNew \application]
@="Excel"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open New \ddeexecNew \topic]
@="system"
now save the file, double click the file on the desktop and select "YES" to the warning message and then "OK" to the next message. now in the context menu of an Excel file you will see "Open" (set as the default) and below it "Open New". If you right click
an Excel file and select "Open New" it will open in an Excel file in a new instance of Excel. The above will work for a .XLS file. To add this to .XLXS, .XLTM, .XLST just do the above for each file type in the registry. Now you will have the option to open
a new instance of excel for the file or just open it. I'am sure there are more file types for excel, these are just the ones i can think of right now.
.XLSX - [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open]
.XLTM - [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.TemplateMacroEnabled\shell\Open]
.XLSM - [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12\shell\Open]