Cannot set MS Office 2013 as default even with editing registry

Question

I have been struggling trying to set MS Office 2013 as default instead of 2007 ones. My work requires to have both of them in my PC so I cannot avoid having 2007 which I hate so much on my station.

My initial issue was that I couldn't find MS 2013 on the default program list to choose from. Trying to browse the exe file didn't help either.

I followed the instructions to edit registry in this thread: Why won't Excel 2013 work as an "Open With..." program in Windows 7?

It seemed OK as now MS2013 appears on the Open With.. list just like this:

Open with... list

However, when I picked the icon of Excel 2013, my excel file still get launched by the 2007. At this point I have no idea what's the keyword to search for the solution.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Answer 1

try pressing start button and typing "file types"

choose "make a file type always open with a specific program"

select .xls

press change program (upper right)

Browse to new excel. Mine is in this folder but I'm not sure about your version:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16

You may have to repeat for other file types.