As it turns out, excel documents are pretty common and used very widely due to its different uses. The problem in this question is not something that you may only encounter when trying to open excel documents, but rather it is more of a general issue. Realistically speaking, it is not even an issue but rather the intentional behavior of the Windows operating system. If you have upgraded to Windows 11, you may realize that there is a complete overhaul of the Windows Settings app. In there, via the Apps menu, you can change the default applications on your system which decides what application gets to launch certain files on your computer. As it turns out, you will now have to choose a default application for all of the different file types that are associated with the application. With that said, let us get started and show you how to make your excel documents open up with Microsoft Excel instead of Notepad.
Use Open With
One way that you can solve the dilemma of Excel documents opening with Notepad is through the Open With option that appears in the context menu while trying to open up the file through the conventional right-click. Like we have mentioned earlier, the reason notepad is opening the file is because no default application has been set for the file type. When this happens, Windows tries to open up the file with its own built-in alternatives which do not usually work. For example, if you are trying to open up a pdf document, Windows will automatically open it up with the Microsoft Edge browser unless you have another default application specified for it. Similarly, since the excel document is essentially a document, the operating system tries to open it up with the Notepad. As it turns out, when you are trying to open up a file type that does not have a specified application, you are asked by the operating system to choose an application to open up the file with. However, that appears in a simple dialog box and not a window which can be very easily skipped without knowing. Using the Open With option, you can choose an application to open up the file with. In addition to that, you could also choose to remember this choice so that Windows automatically uses the specified application for such file types in the future as well. However, that option is no longer available in Windows 11 and you will have to use the Windows Settings app instead. To open the file with Excel, follow the instructions given down below: The caveat to this is that you will have to use the Open With option every time you wish to open up the file with Microsoft Excel as this isn’t a permanent solution. If you are looking for more of a permanent solution, move down to the next method.
Change Default Application
Another workaround to this issue would be to change the default application that we have been talking about earlier. When you do not have a default application selected for certain types, Windows will use its built-in applications to open up the files. This usually does not work at all as any excel documents opened in Notepad just show gibberish because it is not able to read the contents of the file. In such a scenario, to fix the problem, you will have to change the default application. Windows uses default applications to decide which file types are opened with which applications. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:
Show File Extensions
Finally, if you are still encountering the problem even after you have made sure that the default application is Excel, it could be due to the fact that the file extension of the document is different. In such a scenario, you can enable an option in the File Explorer that shows you the extension of the files. Enabling that might give you a hint on what actually is happening. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:
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