IE Opens Excel Spreadsheet In Web, Not Excel

[Vini]

Added a link to our intranet to an excel spreadsheet, the spreadsheet opens inside IE though, how do i get it to open in Excel as default (same with .Doc files too)

[Paul Adams]

I think this should be it:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q162059/

[Iain]

If you can't force users to make that change or they do not have the relevant rights to do so (common in corporate builds) then there are a couple of ugly hacks

- zip the excel file up then the user will be prompted to download
- change the file extension to an invalid one e.g. .xlx. The PC will then download it and the user can either rename it to .xls or double click it and select to open the file using Excel.

Neither is pretty and none of the available MIME types will help either, in effect they are for helping IE to open the excel sheet. You could always switch to Firefox

[Jonny M]

Could you not change the MIME type on the server to a file which IE isn't capable of opening, and hence will have to pop up the download / open box for?

[Vini]

believe it or not (not for the want of trying) i'm the only person on our site that uses firefox. (3 IT bodies on the site/150 staff)

what ive done, is create shortcuts to the excel files and hyperlinked the .lnk's the computer asks the user to open or save.

hit open and the shortcut runs the .xls and opens excel. simple fix and simple enough for the simpletons to understand.

[Iain]

Except that they are now accessing the central version of the file rather than a local one on their desktop and will subsequently overwrite each others changes if they hit Save rather than Save As.....

[Vini]

thats the idea. its setup so that when one person has it opened the other view read only versions, like check in/out on sharepoint.