When you open a Microsoft 365 file from OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams or an email attachment, it opens in the browser version of the app by default. If you do most of your work in the desktop apps, you can change your preferences to open files in the desktop app every time.

Change your file open preference

1. Open a Microsoft 365 app like Word, Excel or PowerPoint on your desktop.
2. Click the File tab in the top left.

3. Select Options near the bottom of the left-hand menu.

4. In the Word/Excel/PowerPoint Options window, select Advanced from the left-hand list.

5. Scroll down to the File Open Preference section. 

6. Use the dropdown to select Desktop application, then click OK.

Once you set this in one app, the preference carries over to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. From now on, files you open from OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams or Outlook will launch directly in the desktop app.

Tip: Need to open a specific file in the browser? Right-click the file and choose Open > Open in browser to override your default for that one file only.