Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 11, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Frank was having a problem with Excel not opening a workbook whenever he would double-click on it in Windows. Excel would start, but the workbook would not load, and Excel would report that it couldn't find the file that was double-clicked.
This sounds like a problem with the file associations in Windows. The first thing to try is to force Excel to reconstruct all the proper association information. You do that by following these steps:
"c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" /regserver
Now try double-clicking on your workbook again. It should open as you expect. If it doesn't, try this:
Figure 1. The General tab of the Options dialog box.
If you still cannot double-click on a workbook to open it, try these steps:
[open("%1")]
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2949) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
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2020-07-24 01:31:25
Robert Thurman
I have had the blank Excel 2007 screen when double clicking on a file and none of the suggestions have worked. I have Windows 10 installed. I went into the MS Office folder and right clicked on the Excel.exe file. It seems it had been set up to run in compatibility mode for Windows Vista. Once I turned compatibility mode off it worked fine.
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