How can I change a hyperlink's default open-with behaviour in Excel?

Question

Using Office 2010 running on Windows 7, I have a hyperlink in Excel to a JPG on a drive:

=HYPERLINK("\\myserver\dir1\file.jpg", "Link")

The problem: when clicked in Excel, this link ONLY opens in Internet Explorer, and I would like to change it to another application such as Windows Photo Viewer or Irfan.

I have found suggestions to do the following, none of which work:

Change the default open-with application in Explorer (right-click, open-with, etc);
Add a new DWORD key to the registry with ForceShellExecute=1 (apparently does not work with Win7).

Any ideas?

As an aside: even when using another default browser (like Firefox, Chrome), then for internet URLs Excel always [first uses an Internet Explorer component](http://superuser.com/questions/444984/excel-hyperlink-not-redirecting-properly-bug/445431#445431) to determine what to do. ([Microsoft Office Protocol Discovery](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/838028).) If that component is used for ALL hyperlinks, maybe the setting you need is somewhere in IE, not in Excel. (But then: I guess you don't want IE to start Irfan when browsing images on a website...) — Arjan, May 20 '13 at 07:29
@Arjan - corrected my HYPERLINK formula; originally thought you were referring to the second variable. — Simbamangu, May 29 '13 at 13:38

Simbamangu · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-31T07:36:54.460

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Add a new key to the registry:

Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\jpegfile\CLSID
Right-click on (Default) and select Modify
Enter the value {FFE2A43C-56B9-4bf5-9A79-CC6D4285608A}

This will now change the open-with behaviour in MS Excel 2010 to use the default Windows app. Confirmed to work with Excel 2010 and Windows 7.

Surely there is a more elegant solution, though?

edited May 31 '13 at 07:36

answered May 29 '13 at 13:36

Simbamangu

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 08 '17 at 04:37

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This worked for windows 10, hope it helps.

Set Chrome as your default web browser.

On your computer, click the Start menu .
Click Settings .
Open your default apps: Original version: Click System Default apps. ...(I went into "systems" first)
At the bottom, under "Web browser," click your current browser (typically Microsoft Edge). In the "Choose an app" window, click Google Chrome.

answered Sep 08 '17 at 04:37

Matthew Mccann

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Does this work to choose an _image viewer_ such as Irfan or Photo Viewer, as per the question? – Simbamangu Sep 09 '17 at 08:08

score -2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 06 '13 at 15:37

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You can simply go the settings of the web browser you would like to be your default web browser. Select it as the default web browser. Then your new default web browser will be used for opening up hyperlinks etc.

i.e. In Chrome you can select the Customize and Control button on the top right hand side of the browser, select Settings, and under the Default browser select make Google Chrome my default web browser.

answered Sep 06 '13 at 15:37

user251975

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The user doesn't want to open the file in a different browser, they want to open the file in a different application. – Josh Sep 06 '13 at 16:09

How can I change a hyperlink's default open-with behaviour in Excel?

3 Answers3