Problem setting default version of Excel

[PaulZak]

I'm running Office 2007 (32-bit) on Win 7 (64-bit). A few users have just migrated to Office 2010 so I needed to start testing my Excel-based VBA app in the newer Excel. We have limited resources so I've installed Excel 2010 and Access 2010 (both 32-bit) on my PC, beside Office 2007. Both version of Excel seem to be working just fine except I still want my .xlsm files to open, by default, in 2007 because I'm currently developing and running the app in that version mostly...for now. I realize that I accomplish this by opening Excel 2007 first and then navigating to the files but I’d prefer to just be able to set 2007 as default and then take the extra step when wanting to open the files in 2010.

A couple years back on another PC, I was able to do this successfully when running Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 but I don’t recall what changes I made to accomplish this. I have not been successful using Window's Default Programs (Associate a File Type…”) feature when I’ve browsed to the \Program Files (x86) and \Office12 subfolders to the Excel.exe file for .xlsm, .xlsx, and .xls files. When I double-click on an .xlsm file it still opens in Excel 2010 (not Excel 2007)!

Checking the Web for ideas I only found instructions to make 2007 the default by opening Excel 2007 and running the Office Diagnostics feature, which takes several minutes. Yes, 2007 is then the default but only until I reboot or shut down my PC. Then, I'm back to 2010 as the default.

Does anyone know how to "permanently" set the default for Excel as version 2007?

 

[PaulZak]

Folks, I've found and tried the following solution.
I'll now see if it works long-term...

Open Window's RUN prompt and enter (your path to Excel version you want as default)

For me it's:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\Excel.exe" /regserver