Need to open .xls files with Excel 2016/Win10, default is now Adobe

Anonymous
2015-10-06T15:57:22+00:00
Please check out Office<br> documents don't open in the correct application <br>for the latest information on this topic.

Just installed Win10 and upgraded to Excel 2016. Find I can't open .xls files as default app to open them is now ...Adobe. Excel is not an available option in setting default apps to open .xls files. I got sent to the Store and the app I selected can be set as the default, but when I saved file as .xlsx, Excel balks about opening it. Somehow this doesn't make sense that Excel is not the default for .xls files. Any help here?

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Anonymous
2015-10-06T20:05:58+00:00

Hi Darrell - Windows 10 puts you in control of which of your apps act as the default for file types, so we don't automatically take over the association (I guess you could imagine how much we'd upset a confirmed OpenOffice user if we did :-))

Easiest way to fix this:

Press the Windows key/select the Windows Icon in the start bar

Type "Default" - and search should then suggest: "Default Programs", select it

Wait for the applet to start and then select the "Set your default programs" choice

Find Excel 2016 in the list, select it, and then select "->Set this program as default"

Then sit back and enjoy Excel opening your workbook files!

Apologies for the somewhat long set of instructions, I feel we should award some kind of "dedication above and beyond the expected calls of duty" :-)

Hope this helps...pc

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Anonymous
2017-04-11T20:45:08+00:00

Hello! We've created a "Fix It" tool that may further assist if you're continuing to experiencing problems with file associations. You can learn more and access the tool here: Double-clicking an Office file fails to open it

Freya

Office Newsroom

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-01-02T10:37:55+00:00

    Just installed Win10 and upgraded to Excel 2016. Find I can't open .xls files as default app to open them is now

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-01-04T21:37:42+00:00

    Okay...I see this thread was started in 2015. It's now 2018, and I just downloaded the subscription version of Office because I need Access (I already had the non-subscription version). So I go to open a spreadsheet I'd been working with and lo and behold, it does not have a program associated with it anymore. Then it decides Acrobat would be a good choice (it's not). So I go to Excel and open it that way, and when I open Excel, it tells me it's not the default program for spreadsheets?!  Why is this still an issue??? 

    SO. I went to Settings, then to Default Apps, and tried every way I could to get .xls to pick Excel as the default. It's not even an option for it, though. I tried setting it back to recommended defaults. Still didn't help. I tried restarting. Still didn't help. My Control Panel just sends me back to this applet.

    I was in the middle of working on something here, and I'm getting kind of irritated. Okay, really irritated. This is the trial version of the subscription to Office I'm on, and if I didn't need to learn Access, I'd uninstall this nonsense in a New York second.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-01-04T21:55:42+00:00

    This issue has been open since 2015.

    if Microsoft REALLY cared it would have been solved in 2015.

    I can only conclude that they dont give a damn.

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