When using Excel via a remote app, and opening multiple spread sheets, they all open in a single Excel instance.  For example, I have a remoteApp that opens the file explorer on a Terminal Server, if I open that remoteApp and then navigate to and open multiple spread sheets, they all open in one Excel window.  if I connect directly to that same Terminal Server and then open a file explorer and open multiple spread sheets, they open in separate windows.   This only occurs in Excel; all other apps open multiple documents in separate windows. 

The terminal server is 2008 R2

The office version installed on the terminal server is 2010

Is there a fix for this, or a supported workaround?

Hi JFelser,

Could you tell me the meaning of >> they all open in one Excel window<<? My understanding is when you open multiple workbooks, they all display in one Excel window in taskbar. And you wonder to open them in separate windows.

You can try this method to generate new instance of the EXCEL.EXE process to open multiple workbooks. You can do a registry tweak to open excel files in new window.

http://dottech.org/26491/how-to-force-microsoft-excel-to-open-files-in-new-window-how-to-guide/

Please Note: Since the web sites are not hosted by Microsoft, the links may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Or you can upgrade to Office 2013 as a workaround. Excel 2013 each of workbooks opens in its own window, similar to Word and PowerPoint today.

Please refer to this link:

http://blogs.office.com/2013/02/07/open-excel-workbooks-in-separate-windows-and-view-them-side-by-side/

If my understanding is incorrect, I suggest you be a bit more precise explain your requirement or you can upload a screenshot so that I can get more accurate solutions to this problem. Im glad to help and follow up your reply.

Hope its helpful.

Regards,

George Zhao
TechNet Community Support

George, thank you for your reply and  let me see if I can explain this better.

I have created a remoteApp that points to explorer.exe on a terminal server.  if I run that from my desktop and then open 2 excel spreadsheets from that file explorer, you can only see 1 of the spreadsheets unless you either Tile your windows or use CTRL+Tab.  Every spreadsheet is contained in the single document interface, but with issues.  If you hover over the Excel icon in the taskbar, you only see the currently active spreadsheet, not all open spreadsheets.  The settings in Excel are correct (see below, they work when RDP'ed directly to the terminal server) and we tried the registry fix, but it did not work.

If I RDP to the exact same terminal server and open the same 2 spreadsheets, they open in completely separate windows, functioning as a multiple document interface should, because that is how the settings in excel on the terminal server are.

This does not make sense to me, since in both instances I am using excel on the terminal server, with the same user profile and settings, so I do not know why excel would act differently in these two instances.  Since posting this question I did find a vague reference on a different forum that remoteApp does not support Excel, which would possibly explain it, but I can't find anywhere that Microsoft has actually said that.

• Edited by JFelser 19 hours 8 minutes ago