If you have two monitors and need to open side by side excel windows you might have been annoyed by Excel’s default setting of opening everything in the same window. Here’s how to fix that:

 

Open My Computer

Select Tools

Select Folder Options

Select the File Types tab

Choose XLSX (XLSX for 2007 and XLS for 2003)

 

Go to Advanced

 

Uncheck “browse in same window” in advanced window.

Then highlight Open

Click Edit

Make sure in the Action box it says &Open

Copy the following and paste into “application used to perform action”

“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12\EXCEL.EXE” “%1”

Check the box next to use DDE

Remove anything that is in DDE Message box and DDE Application Not Running box.

Make sure the application box says: EXCEL

And in the Topic box it says: System

Click OK and enjoy side by side Excel windows!