Getting Excel files to open in new windows

LeVeL

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Excel insists on opening all files in the same window, which becomes a nightmare when I have a bunch of files open because they don't show up separately in the task bar at the bottom. I have my task bar options set to never combine buttons. Excel is set to show all windows in the task bar. Tried having it "ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange" and that worked but if I'm opening the very first Excel file I get an error "there was a problem sending the command to the program" and nothing opens, so this isn't a solution.

Any way to accomplish this seemingly easy task? Windows 10, btw. Ugh!
 
windows 10?
are you sure it's opening the excel program, and not the excel desktop app?
what happens when you open excel itself multiple times? (as in not clicking the shortcut to excel, and not on a clsx file)
 
There are also some helpful tips in the comments.

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windows 10?
are you sure it's opening the excel program, and not the excel desktop app?
what happens when you open excel itself multiple times? (as in not clicking on a doc to open excel)

No, it's Excel. It's a deliberate design decision - it's why I have the reg hack bookmarked.
 
so it's only in W10? i work a lot with excel (in W7) and never have seen this happen
i'll bookmark the link for when the inevitable upgrade comes!
 
so it's only in W10? i work a lot with excel (in W7) and never have seen this happen
i'll bookmark the link for when the inevitable upgrade comes!

I've seen it do this in Win Vista and 7 as well as 10. It seems to be related to whether someone migrated (using the wizard or similar utility) from a prior machine and version of Excel. An absolutely fresh install of Office on a virgin post-WinXP WinOS will get you the behavior that Level notes - newly opened documents all open in the same Excel window. Amusingly, Office For Mac doesn't even try to do that.
 
Hold Ctrl while double clicking?
 
Thanks, I'll try the reg idea. I had this happen to me in Win7 too but the things I described in the OP actually solved the issue then - not so with Win10.


Hold Ctrl while double clicking?
Doesn't seem to do anything different.
 
You can open a new instance of excel just by double clicking the program icon again. But then you manually need top open the files you want in the 2nd instance. I do it all the time to have 2 different Excel files up on seperate monitors at the same time
 
You can open a new instance of excel just by double clicking the program icon again. But then you manually need top open the files you want in the 2nd instance. I do it all the time to have 2 different Excel files up on seperate monitors at the same time

Similar to this, I generally middle-click the open Excel in the task bar, then manually open.
 
Similar to this, I generally middle-click the open Excel in the task bar, then manually open.

I do this too with many applications for bitchin' dual-monitor action. :)
 
Can you drag the file from the folder into the newly opened session, at least saving a little bit of effort? I'd try, but I'm on the can.
 
I use Windows 10 with Office 2016 and whenever I open an excel file, it opens in a new window. I use three-screen setup and constantly use multiple excels at the same time on my work and not have any issues... Also before O365 upgraded to 2016 I cannot remember any problems with the old version either in the matter...
 
I use Windows 10 with Office 2016 and whenever I open an excel file, it opens in a new window. I use three-screen setup and constantly use multiple excels at the same time on my work and not have any issues... Also before O365 upgraded to 2016 I cannot remember any problems with the old version either in the matter...

same here, but it's also the professional edition
maybe it's different with home and student edition?
 
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