Hello,

Is there any way to configure Word, when using Windows 8.1 to ALWAYS open a new instance of Word when the icon is clicked?  And, I don't mean, right click on the icon and click open in new window.  I forget about that 95% of the time and I'm tired of going back and doing it again.

I NEVER click on that icon to show a Word doc I already have open.

Actually, Excel behaves this same way.

Thanks,

Greg

Hi Greg,

Based on your description, did you mean when you click the Word in Start Screen it always open a Word which has already running document but not a new one. And you wonder to open a new document when you click the app in Start Screen in Windows 8.1.

If my understanding is correct, you can try these steps to get this result:

1. Open Registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell.
2. Right click "ImmersiveShell", and create a new key called "Launcher".
3. At HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Launcher, right click in the right pane and create a new DWORD value called DesktopAppsAlwaysLaunchNewInstance.
4. Double click it and set its value to 1.

  5.Log off and log in back or just restart Explorer as we showed in this previous post.

Refer to this article about How to open a new window of a desktop app from the Start screen:

http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-open-a-new-window-of-a-desktop-app-from-the-start-screen/

Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

If my understanding is incorrect, please tell me and you could be a bit more precise explain your problem so that we can get more accurate solutions to this problem.

Hope its helpful.

Regards,

George Zhao
TechNet Community Support

Sorry it took so long to get back.  This works perfectly.  All my apps (Visual Studio, Office apps, SQL Server apps) all open this way.  That will make my life easier.

Is there someplace on the GUI to set this?  Just curious more than anything else.  I searched around on the GUI for a while.  Since that registry key had to be added, versus a value changed, I doubt it.

Thanks,

Greg