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Wictor Wilén

Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) - SharePoint 2010 | Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) - SharePoint Server MVP | Author

Open linked Office documents in the application instead of in Internet Explorer

Posted at 2008-02-14 12:43 by Wictor Wilén in SharePoint , Windows XP , Microsoft Office , Internet Explorer , Windows Vista with 5 comments.

I have several time stumbled upon clients who complain that their hyper linked Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) opens up in the web browser, Internet Explorer, instead of in their respectively Office application.

In SharePoint document libraries these problems are solved using a special JavaScript that fires up the correct application, but today I had a client complaining about this problem when having Office documents linked in a Wiki. So I dug up some information from the Microsoft Knowledge Base on this matter and though I should share it (or at least have it written down for future reference).

Three KB articles focuses on this one (wonder why I have missed them before?).

There are mainly two methods to make the documents open up in their Office applications; one is to do some registry hacking and the other one is to edit a property in the Registered file types. I think the easiest way is using a registry script.

This script (from KB927009) fixes the issue, just create an empty document with notepad and save the file using a .reg file extension and then double-click the file and accept to import the changes to the registry.

If you don't have Office 2007, then you can remove all references to ????.12, for example Word.Document.12.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Word.Document.8]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:80000024

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Word.RTF.8]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:80000024

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Word.Document.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:80000024

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Word.DocumentMacroEnabled.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:80000024

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Excel.Sheet.8]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:80000A00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Excel.Sheet.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:80000A00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:80000A00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Excel.SheetBinaryMacroEnabled.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:80000A00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PowerPoint.Show.8]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:800000A0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PowerPoint.Show.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:800000A0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PowerPoint.ShowMacroEnabled.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:800000A0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PowerPoint.SlideShow.8]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:800000A0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PowerPoint.SlideShow.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:800000A0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\PowerPoint.SlideShowMacroEnabled.12]
"BrowserFlags"=dword:800000A0

 

Standard registry hack disclaimer: only do this if you are sure what you are doing....

Comments and trackbacks

#  Linked Office Software Vs Sharepoint by Ken Hastings
If you having trouble linking documents check out this software, Linked Office Software. This software is robust and works with any external application.
#  Re: Linked Office Software Vs Sharepoint by Wictor
Screenshot from websnpr This looks like a nice product, but it has nothing to do with the problem described in the post :-(
#  Open word in Internet Explorer by Jade
Screenshot from websnpr If i want to open the word document in Internet Explorer instead of the word program. What value should i set for the registry? Please advice.
#  Thanks! by Bob
Screenshot from websnpr This really helped save me some time, thanks so much!!!
#  Actually... by Bob
Screenshot from websnpr Actually, Wictor is right. This doesn't fix the problem described in the post... in fact, it does exactly the opposite (forces the files to open in IE instead of the appropriate office program).
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