Hello AG,

I can understand that you are frustrated by the experience of multiple
versions of Office on one computer. In order to re-associate the xls files
with a particular version of Office, the documented approach is to
Reinstall or Repair that version of Office (see the section 2 "For the rest
Microsoft Office applications" in my last reply). The "open with" method
only works for Microsoft Access and Word (see the section 1 "For Microsoft
Access and Microsoft Word" in my last reply).

The product team indeed has spent a lot of "invisible" efforts on improving
the developer's productivity when multiple versions of Office are installed:

KB: Office automation when multiple versions of Office are installed
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292491
(See the "Additional Notes" section.)
<quote
For testing purposes, developers can force a specific version of an Office
application to register by using the /regserver switch on the command line.
For example, to force an Excel version to register without running setup,
you can use a command line that resembles the following:
"c:\program files\microsoft office\office\excel.exe" /regserver
Although you can implement this switch for testing and development
purposes, it is not recommended that you rely on this switch in production
scenarios.
</quote

Regarding your concerns on our products' consistency and standardization, I
do not find Microsoft document that says "whichever version of Excel that I
used last is what Windows would open
an xls file with". On the contrary, the KB articles in my last reply
explicitly tell that, for the current Microsoft Office applications, except
Microsoft Word and Access, the file opens in the version of the program
that you most recently installed. And to associate files with the programs
that are included with a particular version of Office, run the Office Setup
program, and then click Repair Office. When you do this, the file
associations for that version of Office are registered. I hope my response
to your concerns does not hurt or disappoint you. I'm doing my best to
explain the issue to you openly and objectively, and I will surely convey
your concerns to the product group. Thanks.

Last but not least, I'd appreciated it if you send your feedbacks on my
quality of support service to my manager: . Your
suggestions will be where I can improve myself and personalize my services
for you in our future collaborations. Thanks for your time.

Regards,
Jialiang Ge , remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

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