Notice
Excel Viewer has been retired
Important: The Microsoft Excel Viewer was retired in April, 2018. It is no longer available for download or receive security updates. To continue viewing Excel files for free, we recommend installing the Excel mobile app or storing documents in OneDrive or Dropbox, where Excel Online opens them in your browser.
For the Excel mobile app, visit the store for your device:
Summary
The Excel Viewer can open the latest version of Excel workbooks, but it will not display newer features.
More Information
Other options for free viewing of Excel workbooks
- Excel Online Excel Online is available through OneDrive or deployed as part of Microsoft SharePoint. Excel Online can view, edit and print Excel workbooks. For more information about Excel Online, see the Office Online overview.
- Office 365 Trial Downloading the trial will give you access to the full capabilities of Microsoft Office 2013. For more information, see Office 365 Home.
- Office Mobile applications Download the trial for mobile applications available on iPhone, Android phone, or Windows Phone. For more information, see Office on mobile devices.
Note The Excel Viewer is available only as a 32-bit application. A 64-bit version of the Excel Viewer does not exist. The 32-bit version of the Excel Viewer can be used on 64-bit versions of Windows.
The file name of the Excel Viewer is xlview.exe. The default folder location for the Excel Viewer on a 32-bit operating system is c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\. The default folder location for the Excel Viewer on a 64-bit operating system is c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\.
Note If you already have a full version of Microsoft Excel installed on your computer, do not install Microsoft Excel Viewer in the same directory. Doing this causes file conflicts.
File formats supported
The Excel file formats supported are .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .xltx, .xltm, .xls, .xlt, .xlm, and .xlw. Macro-enabled files can be opened (.xlsm, .xltm, and .xlm), but the macros do not run.Known issues with newer versions of Excel workbooks and the Excel Viewer
Even though the Excel Viewer can read the latest Excel workbooks, the following new features are not visible or are displayed differently in the Excel Viewer.- Sparklines are not shown in the Excel Viewer. The cells where they are located are blank.
- PivotTables and PivotCharts are flattened. The data or chart will appear, but modifications cannot be made.
- Macros do not run in the Excel Viewer.
- Slicers do not display data in the Excel Viewer. Instead, a box is displayed in the location of the slicer and it contains the following text: "This shape represents a slicer. Slicers are supported in Excel 2010 or later. If the shape was modified in an earlier version of Excel, or if the workbook was saved in Excel 2003 or earlier, the slicer cannot be used."
