I found the solution to this problem.

Actually it is a WinXP Register problem and not an Excel problem.

If you Google "can't open multiple files" you will find the answer.

In my case I installed the AVG Virus software(the free version) on my computer
recently.

This software made a registry entry in the folder.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

When I deleted the "AVG Antivir" key in this reg folder everything worked ok and
I was now able to open multiple files in Excel, Word, etc.

Some people had installed other programs that caused the same problem in this
folder. When they deleted the keys for their program in that folder everything
worked as it should.


wrote:

I have Excel 2000 and Win XP pro.

I used to be able to highlight many XLS files in Explorer, right click, choose
open and all the highlighted files would open in Excel with the different xls
files on my task bar.

I can still do this on my W98 computer, but I can only open one file at a time
on my Win XP computer. If I double click on a 2nd XLS file the 2nd XLS file
opens and the first file closes.

I tried the run excel.exe /regserv fix but this did not solve the problem.

Does anyone know how to fix this for Win XP?

Thanks

Dennis