How do I stop Microsoft 365 from opening in browser?

Here is a tutorial to show you how you can prevent file links in Microsoft Office from opening in a web browser. Users have different preferences for opening links to files in Office apps like OneDrive, Outlook, SharePoint, etc. Some users want to open them in Office web apps, while many want to open file links directly in Office desktop apps instead of a browser. If you prefer the latter one, this guide will interest you.

Why does Office 365 open in the browser?

Office documents and files may open in a web browser in various scenarios. One of the most common reasons is your in-app settings, which might be configured to open file links in a browser instead of desktop apps. Files opened from cloud services like OneDrive or SharePoint may open in web apps due to real-time editing. Also, if you have opened a file in a web browser, it will continue to open in the browser only.

You will face this issue if you are not logged in to your Microsoft 365 account or don’t have a valid Office subscription. So, make sure you have a subscription to Office 365 and have desktop apps installed on your computer. If not, you can open the Microsoft 365 app, click the Install apps button, and proceed with the onscreen instructions.

This problem may occur if you have downloaded and installed Office from the Microsoft Store on your Windows PC. If the scenario applies, download the Office installed from the Microsoft website and install it on your computer.

Outlook Premium accounts with real-time URL phishing protection enabled across all platforms may also encounter this problem.

Other potential causes for this issue include links to files not saved on OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365, links received for notifications, and SharePoint vanity domains.

How do I stop Microsoft 365 from opening in browser?

If you don’t want to open file links in Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook, OneDrive, or SharePoint in a web browser, you can use the following:

Change Outlook settings.
Modify Word, Excel, or PowerPoint options.
Use the Open with option.

1] Change Outlook settings

In case you want to open files from your Outlook emails in desktop Office apps instead of a web browser, you can change its settings. Here’s how:

First, open Outlook and go to File > Options.
Now, move to the Advanced tab in the Options window.
After that, locate the File and browser preferences section.
Next, set the “Open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using” option to Desktop.
Finally, click on the OK button to save changes.

You can now click on a file link in Outlook and it will open in the respective Office app rather than a browser.

Read: How to change default browser when opening hyperlink in Excel?

2] Modify Word, Excel, or PowerPoint options

Another thing you can do to prevent file links from opening in a web browser is to change the respective settings in Office apps like Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Office apps provide a dedicated option to tweak file opening preferences. You can simply modify it to fix the issue. Here are the steps to do that:

First, open any Office app from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Now, click on File > Options and go to the Advanced tab.
Next, scroll down to the File Open Preference section and set the Open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using option to Desktop.
In case there is a Link Handling option in your version of Office, tick the Open supported hyperlinks to Office files in Office desktop apps box.
Lastly, press the OK button to save changes.

Read: Cannot open Hyperlinks in Outlook email on Windows.

3] Use the Open with option

Using their right-click context menu, You can set the default app to open OneDrive or SharePoint files in a preferred Office app.

To do that, right-click on a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file on OneDrive/SharePoint and choose the Option with option from the context menu. After that, select the preferred Office app to open the selected file and then click on Always. The file will now open in the desktop app instead of a browser.

You must repeat the above procedure for all file types you want to open in desktop Office apps.

I hope this helps!

How do I stop Edge from opening Office files in browser?

You can stop Microsoft Edge from opening Office files in the browser and let it download and open them in desktop apps. To do so, you will be required to change its settings. Here’s how: