Sometimes one of these works:

Tools|Options|General|Ignore other applications (uncheck it)

--- or ---

Close Excel and
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /unregserver
then
Windows Start Button|Run
excel /regserver

The /unregserver & /regserver stuff resets the windows registry to excel's
factory defaults.

Neil wrote:

Lately I found that I can't double click on an .xls file to launch Excel and
open the file. I have to launch Excel then from within Excel open the .xls
file. I went into file types to try and re-establish the association with
Excel and .xls files without success... Any suggestions?



--

Dave Peterson