Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

About once a month,I open my Open Office spreadsheet and find it has been taken over by Exel and I have to go through all sorts of fiddling about to return it to Open Office. I am using Windows 10 but have not ever had Microsoft Office on my laptop and it seems like it is a Microsoft ploy to force me to buy their product. It happened again this morning and I note that the file name has the Exel icon next to it even though the extension is still .ods. I am scared to close it because I am sure when I open it again later it will have been high jacked again. Anyone got any ideas?

You need to set file associations to point to OpenOffice for the file types in question.

Click the Start button and select Settings > System > Default apps > Set Default by app. Select OpenOffice 4.1.x from the apps list, click Choose defaults for this program, then check the file name extensions for file types you want to open in OpenOffice.

MS Windows updates often do this.

Edit: There is a quicker way to do this, rather than on a file-type by file-type basis; I am not familiar with the quick way, as I do not use modern versions of Windows.

Thank you very much - really appreciate you taking the time to help.

RoryOF wrote: Click the Start button and select Settings > System > Default apps > Set Default by app. Select OpenOffice 4.1.2 from the apps list, click Choose defaults for this program, then check the file name extensions for file types you want to open in OpenOffice.

MS Windows updates often do this.

Hi I am a very puzzled and frustrated 'newby' in this forum.
I also appear to have been hi-jacked by WPS It has invaded all through my document files and notices with a duplicate WPS beside my open office File. I very much prefer using Open office. I have read The replies in this forum and just tried what Rory suggested about opening the apps and choosing my Open Office files as default. Something has worked because now I have just been able to print off one of my Open Office files. The WPS files are still there though so it seems I must painstakingly go through dozens and dozens of duplicates in various folders to delete them.

My other BIG problem is that I have tried several times in the past week to download and install the latest 4.1.5 version.
I am being told ----- This app cant run on your PC. check with the software publisher for a version that can run on my PC ?? Is this REALLY the case ? or just another Windows 10 attempt to eliminate competition?
(A qualifier - I am a quite elderly user so getting to grips with this stuff is a real challenge. )

This is exactly the same problem with any Windows version since Windows 4 of 1995. The huge difference between 1995 and today is that back in 1995 computer users learned the most fundamental basics of their computer systems, for instance the difference between programs, data files, folders and links and the relation between their data files and their installed programs in particular. Every drug store used to have a book shelf with books like "Windows 95 for Dummies", "WinWord for Beginners" or "Comprehensive Excel". Nobody believed in "mere intuition" back then.

You need to reset your Default Programs so that AOO has all its default settings.

Google for help on how to do it - it will be in Settings.

I am a quite elderly user so getting to grips with this stuff is a real challenge

On that basis I probably shouldn't be able to tie my shoe laces, and putting on my incontinence wear would require assistance of a younger person However, although I was born in the first half of the 20th century, I find I can still learn new things when I need to.

Betty344 wrote:My other BIG problem is that I have tried several times in the past week to download and install the latest 4.1.5 version.
I am being told ----- This app cant run on your PC. check with the software publisher for a version that can run on my PC ?? Is this REALLY the case ? or just another Windows 10 attempt to eliminate competition?
(A qualifier - I am a quite elderly user so getting to grips with this stuff is a real challenge. )

This is most probably a Windows Defender problem. Not using any current Windows I cannot suggest a solution; perhaps some more up-to-date Windows user will help.

Edit: this note may help How to Change Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access Settings in Windows 10

Well, at last we see something that has been changed in the last quarter of a century. Windows tries to establish a third defence line after the criminals nested their software on your computer and after they managed to get it started. What a crap.
Btw: My 80 year old mother successfully started to use a non-Windows Laptop when she was 74.