Mass-change Excel file associations to version 2003?

[Mel]

WinXP

Not a vba question, I don't think, but I'm bombing out asking this in
other groups and know brilliant minds hang out here. <g>

Having v2003 Office, I installed v2007 into a different folder and now
have both versions. But now I click on an XLS file and it naturally
opens in v2007, however, I want it to open in version 2003. In fact, I
want all my office files to still open in v2003 by default. I know I
theoretically can change each file association separately in Folder
Options, but that still defaults back to version 2007, so I can't even
get that to work. But more than that, I seem to remember that a
command could be typed into the Run dialog box to change all relevant
file types to a particular version (i.e., XLS, XLA, XLT, PPT, PPS,
PPA, POT, DOC, DOT). I did this when working with a project involving
2000, 2002, and 2003. I was able to mass-change my Office file
associations quickly this way. Unfortunately I can't remember the
command or from where I got it.

Can someone please provide me with the command if one exists or other
suggestions?

Thanks,
Melina

 

[JLatham]

Mel,
These instructions are for Vista (specifically I did it in the 64 bit
version on a system with both Office 2003 and 2007 on it).

Go into the Control Panel, choose the Classic View (in left hand pane) and
then click on [Default Programs]. Choose the 2nd item in the list ("Associate
a file type or protocol with a program").

In the next window, scroll down the list until you find the .xls entry (for
Excel) and then highlight it and click the [Change Program] button. You'll
probably see the Excel 2007 icon at the upper left portion of the window,
just above the list box.

The "Open With" dialog will open and you'll probably see Excel 2007 icon and
"Microsoft Office Excel" in the [Recommended Programs] area. Ignore that and
click on the pull down arrow at the right end of the row that begins with
[Other Programs]. If Excel 2003 is in there (look for the plain square Excel
icon), pick it - but it's probably not going to be in there, so use the
[Browse] button to navigate to the location of Excel 2003 (default C:\Program
Files\Microsoft Office\Office11

Choose Excel.exe in there and click OK. That'll take care of .xls files.
Unfortunately you're going to need to do this for things like .xlt and for
other applications like .doc and .dot and such. I wish I had the one-liner
you're looking for to give you, but I don't. Maybe someone else will know of
it.