Forum Discussion
Open file in desktop app by default
Is there a (custom) way to open office files in the respective office desktop app by default (e.g. Excel)?
At the moment when clicking on the file it opens in Teams
It turns out this only works if your Office apps are through an enterprise license (E3 plan or higher).
If you believe everyone who has paid for the Office desktop apps should be able to set Teams to open files in them (as SharePoint already does), please UPVOTE here:
https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/510e83a1-8353-ec11-a819-000d3a7bc845
Microsoft needs to put this option back in for any and all licensed users. I'm on Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise, and my option to open in app has disappeared all of a sudden.
mikkele Check out my video demonstration on how to always have Office files in Teams open in the desktop app.
I also blogged about it here if you'd prefer that format. Basically you can choose each time for a file where to have it open (right-click > open > choice), or change your settings (ellipsis in upper right corner) to have all files use their corresponding app.
What do you do when you only have two options to set the default to: Teams and Browser? I'm on Windows 10 and have included my Teams version info in the screenshot below. Another developer here has the exact same version, but get to choose the third Desktop App option (which is the one I want).
mikkele The feature is going to be available for everybody pretty soon. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-public-preview/now-in-teams-public-preview-default-file-open-setting-for-office/m-p/2581566 I have seen it working but I myself am still waiting for it to reach me.
There are several posts that say when you open a file from Teams it opens in Teams, but a few days ago all my files started opening in the app, not in Teams. Was this an MS change and
How do I change that back?
- This is now apparently available in Public Preview, We are unable to get Public Preview to work here so I can't verify. But I guess this means it's soon (?) available for all users.
https://www.onmsft.com/news/microsoft-teams-will-soon-let-users-choose-where-to-open-office-files- You can follow the roadmap id here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/roadmap?filters=&searchterms=82662
Why can't you get it to work? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/public-preview-doc-updatesThanks! So September it is then.
I'm not sure. I don't have Teams admin privileges, but my admin has created a new update policy in order to enable PP for both his user and mine. None of us can see the option to enable Public Preview though.
mikkele comming soon 🙂
- I spoke to someone in the Teams engineering group who said that this is being worked on! She made it sound like it is close to being done!
LWildsMy work around has been to sync the teams folder to file explorer through OneDrive.
scottr23 That is good news. That means that they are putting the same priority on this that they have for years, given it is not the first time rumour have it that they are working on it and it is close to being done.
But thanks for the update 🙂
This only helps if you open the document from SharePoint. If somebody open a document directly from the Teams interface, it still opens in the browser. This solution is not adequate for our needs.
Thanks mparkins690
Where do you get to this menu?
This feature should be a must.
(This is a message for MS User Voice and Development teams. Maybe what I suggest is already ongoing)
Yes, there is much UX to be done all across MS365 programs.
User voice and tech community are a great thing. Please keep going.
But maybe at MS you should get a nice group of contributors. There are lots of constructive people participating. Have you contacted them/us for UX? Having good designs from the beginning may be faster (overall), more satisfactory for devs and users than having to change frustrating features that will be deeply integrated in the system.
Yes, PLEASE fix this. Though I was tolerant at first, it is now beyond annoying to have to click to open files in desktop apps. The default should be allowed to be changed to always open in the Desktop (fully functional) version. I don't mind a quickview of what the file is but I don't want the file to open in the teams version and then have to open the desktop app.
Please.
Mike1sMike I would add your votes to the Uservoice that ChristianBergstrom posted above, that's where user requirements are captured, not here.
