How to make Office 2016 or 2019 or 365 your default Microsoft Office application?

Applicable to the following Office versions: 2019, 2016, 2013, 365; on Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10.

Here’s a question we received from one of our readers:

“I’ve just installed a new version of Office 365 in my system but it’s clearly not defined as the default program for viewing and editing of Microsoft Office files. After the installation, all my documents, workbooks and presentations are showing up in the Windows File Explorer as unknown file types. Can you help me to define Office 365  as the default file opener for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio files over older Office versions?”

Set Office 365 / 2019 /2021 as default

If you are using Office 365 on your Windows 10 computer, you can define it as the default version as following:

  • Hit the Windows button at the left hand side of your taskbar.
  • Type Control Panel and hit Enter.
  • Then select Programs.
  • Then Select Programs and Features.
  • Then go ahead and highlight the Microsoft 365 entry as shown below.
  • Now hit Change.
  • Then hit Repair.
  • Wait that the repair process is over, your files should now be opening with Office 365 by default.

Setting defaults in Windows 10

Note: You can execute the steps above in Windows 10 using the Default apps screen. Here’s how you do it:

  • Hit the Search Windows magnifying glass icon (located at the left hand side of your task bar).
  • In the search box, type ‘Default’; and select Choose a default app…
  • Then for each known/relevant file type, select the default opening app.

If all the above mentioned techniques didn’t help, you might need to try the manual method specified below.

Office 2016 as default program instead of older versions

Windows allows us to associate the newer Office version to all relevant files by executing a Quick Repair action from the Control panel. Steps are described below:

  • Open the Control Panel in your system and click Programs and Features.
  • Search and check on Microsoft Office 2016.
  • Click on it and hit Change present at the top.
2015-12-02 16_00_15-Programs and Features
  • Hit Quick repair to fix the issues and select Repair.

Set your default programs/apps manually

Setting Excel 365 as default spreadsheet program:

  • Right click on any Excel .xlsx file in your computer
  • Select Open with and select Choose another app.
2015-12-02 16_11_29-Settings
  • Click on Excel 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .xlsx files.
  • Now you can see that all .xlsx files default program is set to Excel 2016.

Note: In case that you are using Office 365, you’ll have the following option available in right hand button menu:

Note: Using a similar procedure, will allow you to make Excel the default program for csv, Google Sheets, Open Office files.

Word 2016 / 365

If Microsoft Word 2016 is not your default program for opening documents proceed as following:

  • Right click on the .docx file, move over open with and select Choose another app.
2015-12-02 16_10_49-Settings
  • Click on Word 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .docx files.
2015-12-02 16_07_16-cscsasc
  • Now you can see that all .docx files default program is set to Word 2016.

PowerPoint

If PowerPoint 2016 doesn’t open your presentations, proceed as following:

  • Right click on the .pptx file, move over open with and select Choose another app.
2015-12-02 16_08_34-Settings
  • Click on PowerPoint 2016 and check on Always use this app to open .pptx files.
2015-12-02 16_09_14-cscsasc
  • That’s it , You are all set.

Additional notes:

  • There might be cases, mainly around compatibility with older file formats, in which you might want to leaver the older Office versions (2010 and older) as default.
  • There might be cases in which Word, PowerPoint or Excel 2016, will not be listed in the default program list. If that’s the case immediately after you have installed the new version, you might want to restart your computer and re-check. If there is still an issue, you might need to re-run the installation program.
  • Compatibility issues might arise when trying to open Microsoft Office files in Open Office, Libre and Google Docs.

FAQ

How to make Office 2016 default on mac?

  • In your macOS device, open the Finder application.
  • Navigate to any office file.
  • Right click the file and choose Get Info.
  • Under Open With, select the Microsoft Office 2016 entry.
  • Hit Change All to apply the settings to that file extension.

What to do if Office 365 is kept as default after defining 2019 as default?

  • Run the Office 2019 setup and repair your installation.
  • Restart your computer.
  • If this is not helpful you might need to consider a Windows user profile. Make sure to consult an IT professional before switching to a new profile.

4 thoughts on “How to make Office 2016 or 2019 or 365 your default Microsoft Office application?”

  1. I have been frustrated by the issue of Windows 10 not offering the option of selecting a desktop application for setting the default program when you are trying to do this through Default app settings > Set defaults by app > Excel 2016 > Manage. Using this standard approach, only the “Look for an app in the Store” is shown (i.e. it is not possible to choose a desktop app) – I am using the desktop apps of Office 365. This was so easy to do in earlier versions of Windows (through Control Panel).

    The fix described here is simple and it works (luckily, Microsoft has not been successful with clobbering Windows/File Explorer, as it was with switching everything away from the powerful Control Panel to the dumb Settings app). Thank you for taking the time to post this!

  2. to make office 365 your default. you must log into office 365 via your web browser then make that browser your default program for opening Microsoft docs and excels files.

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