Feedback by UserVoice

 

How can we improve Excel for Windows (Desktop Application)?

← Excel for Windows (Desktop Application)

Allow more than 1 instance in Excel 2016

Can you please bring back the ability to open more than 1 instance of Excel? Currently when I have a macro running, I am unable to utilize Excel because of this new setup. In the older versions of Excel, it was nice to be able to choose how many instances you wanted to open.

1 vote
Sign in
(thinking…)
Password icon
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close

We’ll send you updates on this idea

Anonymous shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
already supported  ·  Dan Battagin [MS XL] responded  · 

Hi,

This is already supported. To start a new Excel instance, press Windows+R (Run), then type “Excel /x” without quotes.

You’ll get a new process that will be isolated from other Excel instances.

Cheers,
Dan [MS]

2 comments

Sign in
(thinking…)
Password icon
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close
Submitting...
  • Rick Noltemy commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    there is a registry key you can put into the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options

    DisableMergeInstance as a DWORD and set to 1.

    Then every instance will launch seperately. If you want something in the same instance, then use File->Open from that instance

  • anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This is not fully supported.
    When opening from explorer (double-clicking) on an Excel document, there is no option for running in a separate instance.

Excel for Windows (Desktop Application): Opening and Saving Files

Feedback and Knowledge Base

(thinking…)