Re-associating MS Office File Extensions

Sometimes, you may have to install a new version of Microsoft Office when an older version is already installed. For example, you might have MS Office 2013 installed, and then for some reason, you're installing MS Office 2016.

Up to this point, everything works just fine. However, when you decide to uninstall Office 2013, all file associations are removed with it.

For example, all .doc, .docx, .xls, and .xlsx files will no longer open automatically in their respective applications.

In such cases, you will need to re-associate these file extensions with MS Office.

Steps to Re-associate File Extensions

Right-click on an Office file, such as example.doc, and then go to Properties.

In the General tab, there is an option called Open With. Click the Change button beside it. Then navigate to:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\office16\

This is the installation directory for MS Office. You will find all the installed components like Excel, Word, Outlook, etc. In our case, select word.exe, and then click OK.

The file extension .doc is now connected to word.exe.

After completing the above steps, word.exe is recognized as a desktop app. That means, if you want to associate Word with any other file type, you no longer need to navigate to the directory. Simply go to the file properties, click Change, and you will see "Word" already displayed in the given list.

Repeat the same steps for Excel as well.

Easy Solution: Re-associate Files Using Commands

File associations in Windows are stored in the registry, which is a database of programs and the file types they can open. When you install Microsoft Office, all Office files are automatically associated with the proper Office program.

If you'd like to re-associate Office files with the correct Office program, you only need to issue a few simple run commands.

Press Windows Key + R on your keyboard to open the Run command box. Then, run the following commands to re-associate each app to its file extensions:

winword /regserver
excel /regserver
powerpnt /regserver
msaccess /regserver