.xls files opening in IE rather than xls

When opening files downloaded from the web, they are
opened in an IE windo rather than the appropriate Office
2003 tool (word, excel, etc.)

From a previous post:

There's a setting in Windows that you can change.

In win98, I can do this:
Start Windows Explorer
View|Folder Options
File Types Tab
scroll down to MS Excel Worksheet
Select it
click the edit button
There's an option to "browse in same window". Uncheck it.

That's where you can toggle the "confirm open after download", too.

How to Configure Internet Explorer to Open Office
Documents in the Appropriate Office Program Instead of in Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=162059

" wrote:

When opening files downloaded from the web, they are
opened in an IE windo rather than the appropriate Office
2003 tool (word, excel, etc.)

--

Dave Peterson

Hi Charles,

How to configure Internet Explorer to open Office documents in the
appropriate Office program instead of in Internet Explorer

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry.
Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that
you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For
information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the
following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge
Base:
256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS
When you click an HTML link to a Microsoft Office file (such as a Microsoft
Word or Excel document), Internet Explorer may open the file in Internet
Explorer, instead of opening the file in the appropriate Office program.
CAUSE
This behavior may occur if Internet Explorer is configured to host
documents for Office programs that are installed on the computer. By
default, Internet Explorer is configured to host documents for Office
programs.
RESOLUTION
To configure Internet Explorer to open Office files in the appropriate
Office program instead of in Internet Explorer, use one of the following
methods.

Note These methods configure Internet Explorer to open Office files in the
appropriate Office program for all users."
Method 1: Use the Folder Options tool
Note If you are running Windows NT 4.0, you may not be able to use the
following procedure to configure Internet Explorer to open Office files in
the appropriate Office program. If you are running Windows NT 4.0, use
Method 2.

Note If you are running Terminal Server on Windows 2000 or Windows Server
2003, you may not be able to click Advanced to open the Edit File Type
dialog box in step 4 of this procedure. This issue occurs if the
NoFileAssociate policy is enabled. Enabling this policy prevents users
(including administrators) from changing file type associations for all
users. For additional information about this behavior, click the following
article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
257592 Changes in file types and file association features in Windows 2000
and Windows Server 2003



To configure Internet Explorer to open Office files in the appropriate
Office program by using the Folder Options tool:
Open My Computer.
On the Tools menu (or the View menu), click Folder Options (or click
Options).
Click the File Types tab.
In the Registered file types list, click the specific Office document type
(for example, Microsoft Excel Worksheet), and then click Advanced (or click
Edit).
In the Edit File Type dialog box, click to clear the Browse in same window
check box (or click to clear the Open Web documents in place check box).
Click OK.
Method 2: Edit the Windows Registry
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious
problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft
cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using
Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To configure Internet Explorer to open Office files in the appropriate
Office program by editing the Windows registry, set the BrowserFlags DWORD
value to 8 (or 9 for Microsoft Excel worksheets) for the appropriate
document type. To do this, follow these steps:
Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes

Locate the subkey for the specific Office document type. The following
table lists the subkeys for several common Office document types. Document
Type Subkey
----------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Excel 7.0 worksheet Excel.Sheet.5
Microsoft Excel 97 worksheet Excel.Sheet.8
Microsoft Excel 2000 worksheet Excel.Sheet.8
Microsoft Word 7.0 document Word.Document.6
Microsoft Word 97 document Word.Document.8
Microsoft Word 2000 document Word.Document.8
Microsoft Project 98 project MSProject.Project.8
Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 document PowerPoint.Show.8

To locate the subkey for a document type that is not included in this
table, find the subkey for the extension that is associated with the
document type. The (default) value for that subkey contains the name of the
subkey for that document type. For example, the .xls extension is
associated with Excel worksheets. Under the .xls subkey, the (default)
value contains the string "Excel.Sheet.5." Therefore, the subkey for the
Microsoft Excel Worksheet document type is the following subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Excel.Sheet.5

After you identify the subkey for the specific Office document type, add
the following value for all subkeys except Excel.Sheet.5:
Value name: BrowserFlags
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: 8

For Excel.Sheet.5, add the following value:
Value name: BrowserFlags
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: 9

Click OK, and then quit Registry Editor.

For Further Information : Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 162059

Please let me know has this helped You...
Thank you...
Raghu...
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.