Open an Office application, such as Outlook or Word. Go to File Account or Office Account. If you see an 'Update Options' item, you have a Click-to-Run installation. If you don't see the 'Update Options' item, you have an MSI-based install. Save when you get Excel with Microsoft 365. With Microsoft 365 you get Excel plus Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and 1TB cloud storage per person for all your files, music, photos, videos and more. Share and collaborate with others across all your devices. For an Office 2016, 2013, Office 2010, or Office 2007 installation. To repair Office 2013, Office 2010, or Office 2007, follow the steps in the following Office website topic: Repair Office programs. If these steps do not resolve the problem, go to Method 5. Method 5: Turn off add-ins. Excel and COM add-in programs can also cause this problem.
Last updated: September 2020
Applicable to the following Office versions: 2019, 2016, 2013, 365; on Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10. Network attached storage ssd.
Here's a question we received from one of our readers:
'I've just installed a new version of Office 365 in my system but it's clearly not defined as the default program for viewing and edition my Office files. After the installation, all my documents, workbooks and presentations are showing up in the Windows File Explorer as unknown file types. Can you help me to define Office 365 as the file opener for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio files over older Office versions?'
Thanks for the question. In this post we will learn how to set your new Office version (be it 2016, 365 or 2019) as default for the Microsoft Office files types you just mentioned above.
Office 2016 as default program instead of older versions
Windows allows us to associate the newer Office version to all relevant files by executing a Quick Repair action from the Control panel. Steps are described below:
- Open the Control Panel in your system and click Programs and Features.
- Search and check on Microsoft Office 2016.
- Click on it and hit Change present at the top.
- Check on Quick repair to fix the issues and select Repair.
Office 365 as default
If you are using Office 365 on your Windows 10 computer, proceed as following:
- Hit the Windows button at the left hand side of your taskbar.
- Type Control Panel and hit Enter.
- Then select Programs.
- Then Select Programs and Features.
- Then highlight the Microsoft 365 entry as shown below.
- Now hit Change.
- Then hit Repair.
- Wait that the repair process is over, your files should now be opening with Office 365 by default.
Additional Option:Setting defaults in Windows 10
Note: You can execute the steps above in Windows 10 using the Default apps screen. Here's how you do it:
- Hit the Search Windows magnifying glass icon (located at the left hand side of your task bar).
- In the search box, type ‘Default'; and select Choose a default app…
- Then for each known/relevant file type, select the default opening app.
If all the above mentioned techniques didn't help, you might need to try the manual method specified below. Matt look lipstick review.
Set your default programs/apps manually
Setting Excel 2016 / 365 as default spreadsheet program:
- Right click on any .xlsx file in your computer, then go ahead and select Open with and select Choose another app.
- Click on Excel 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .xlsx files.
- Now you can see that all .xlsx files default program is set to Excel 2016.
Note: In case that you are using Office 365, you'll have the following option available in right hands side menu:
Note: Using a similar procedure, will allow you to make Excel the default program for csv, Google Sheets, Open Office.
Word 2016 / 365
If Microsoft Word 2016 is not your default program for opening documents proceed as following:
- Right click on the .docx file, move over open with and select Choose another app.
- Click on Word 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .docx files.
- Now you can see that all .docx files default program is set to Word 2016.
PowerPoint
If PowerPoint 2016 doesn't open your presentations, proceed as following:
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- Right click on the .pptx file, move over open with and select Choose another app.
- Click on PowerPoint 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .pptx files.
- That's it , You are all set.
Additional notes:
- There might be cases, mainly around compatibility with older file formats, in which you might want to leaver the older Office versions (2010 and older) as default.
- There might be cases in which Word, Powerpoint or Excel 2016, will not be listed in the default program list. If that's the case immediately after you have installed the new version, you might want to restart your computer and re-check. If there is still an issue, you might need to re-run the installation program.
- Compatibility issues might arise when trying to open Microsoft Office files in Open Office, Libre and Google Docs.
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'I've just installed a new version of Office 365 in my system but it's clearly not defined as the default program for viewing and edition my Office files. After the installation, all my documents, workbooks and presentations are showing up in the Windows File Explorer as unknown file types. Can you help me to define Office 365 as the file opener for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio files over older Office versions?'
Thanks for the question. In this post we will learn how to set your new Office version (be it 2016, 365 or 2019) as default for the Microsoft Office files types you just mentioned above.
Office 2016 as default program instead of older versions
Windows allows us to associate the newer Office version to all relevant files by executing a Quick Repair action from the Control panel. Steps are described below:
- Open the Control Panel in your system and click Programs and Features.
- Search and check on Microsoft Office 2016.
- Click on it and hit Change present at the top.
- Check on Quick repair to fix the issues and select Repair.
Office 365 as default
If you are using Office 365 on your Windows 10 computer, proceed as following:
- Hit the Windows button at the left hand side of your taskbar.
- Type Control Panel and hit Enter.
- Then select Programs.
- Then Select Programs and Features.
- Then highlight the Microsoft 365 entry as shown below.
- Now hit Change.
- Then hit Repair.
- Wait that the repair process is over, your files should now be opening with Office 365 by default.
Additional Option:Setting defaults in Windows 10
Note: You can execute the steps above in Windows 10 using the Default apps screen. Here's how you do it:
- Hit the Search Windows magnifying glass icon (located at the left hand side of your task bar).
- In the search box, type ‘Default'; and select Choose a default app…
- Then for each known/relevant file type, select the default opening app.
If all the above mentioned techniques didn't help, you might need to try the manual method specified below. Matt look lipstick review.
Set your default programs/apps manually
Setting Excel 2016 / 365 as default spreadsheet program:
- Right click on any .xlsx file in your computer, then go ahead and select Open with and select Choose another app.
- Click on Excel 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .xlsx files.
- Now you can see that all .xlsx files default program is set to Excel 2016.
Note: In case that you are using Office 365, you'll have the following option available in right hands side menu:
Note: Using a similar procedure, will allow you to make Excel the default program for csv, Google Sheets, Open Office.
Word 2016 / 365
If Microsoft Word 2016 is not your default program for opening documents proceed as following:
- Right click on the .docx file, move over open with and select Choose another app.
- Click on Word 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .docx files.
- Now you can see that all .docx files default program is set to Word 2016.
PowerPoint
If PowerPoint 2016 doesn't open your presentations, proceed as following:
Free Microsoft Excel Download 2018
- Right click on the .pptx file, move over open with and select Choose another app.
- Click on PowerPoint 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .pptx files.
- That's it , You are all set.
Additional notes:
- There might be cases, mainly around compatibility with older file formats, in which you might want to leaver the older Office versions (2010 and older) as default.
- There might be cases in which Word, Powerpoint or Excel 2016, will not be listed in the default program list. If that's the case immediately after you have installed the new version, you might want to restart your computer and re-check. If there is still an issue, you might need to re-run the installation program.
- Compatibility issues might arise when trying to open Microsoft Office files in Open Office, Libre and Google Docs.
The best free alternative to Microsoft Office.
For Windows, Mac and Linux.
SoftMaker FreeOffice is free to use at home and for business.
After using it, you will agree that it is the best free alternative to Microsoft Office.
Battleship through imessage. FreeOffice is a complete Office suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet application and a presentation program – all compatible with their counterparts in Microsoft Office.
What's the catch? There is none. Simply download it for free and use it for as long as you want. Millions of people use it every day and enjoy this great free Office suite.
- Windows 7, 8, 10, Windows Server 2008 R2 or newer
- macOS 10.10 or higher
- Any PC-based Linux (32 or 64 bits)
Free Office Excel Program
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