I have an older version of Excel I have been using. Bought a new laptop and
installed it. When I got a new version of Excel spreadsheet in an email, the
trial version of the new software that was loaded by Toshiba popped up and
took over as default Excel version. I can still use the old version through
direct loading, but everytime I click on the file in the email or windows
explorer a new version takes over )with mandatory warning about the expiry of
the trial period. How do I get the old Excel to be default again?
--
Krmbra

You don't say what the older and newer versions are so adjust the 2002 and
2007 to suit.

Since 2007 has decided it wants to be the default, de-register 2007 and
re-register 2002

Close Excel first and On the Windows Taskbar

StartRun "C:\yourpathto2007\excel.exe" /unregserver

See the space between exe and /unregserver.

Then register 2002

StartRun "C:\yourpathto2002\excel.exe" /regserver

This process should make Excel 2002 the default for opening files.

You may not have to unregister 2007 first but I err on the side of
caution<g


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP


On Wed, 6 Jan 2010 16:16:01 -0800, Krmbra
wrote:

I have an older version of Excel I have been using. Bought a new laptop and
installed it. When I got a new version of Excel spreadsheet in an email, the
trial version of the new software that was loaded by Toshiba popped up and
took over as default Excel version. I can still use the old version through
direct loading, but everytime I click on the file in the email or windows
explorer a new version takes over )with mandatory warning about the expiry of
the trial period. How do I get the old Excel to be default again?

There are several ways to set your default and switch between the two.

1. As suggested by Gord Dibben, use regserver to set your default version
2. Right click, open with, and browse to the version of excel.exe you want to use as a default. The selected Excel version will register itself.

These work fine if you just want to set your default. But painstaking to switch back and forth.

3. Fast switching

a) Select your default using 1 or 2 above.
b) Create a batch file with the command
"C:\PathToAlternateVersion\excel.exe" %1
c) Right click an excel file, select open with, browse to the batch file

Now if you double click an excel file it will open with the default you selected. If you right click and open with you will have a choice of versions.