Event Attachments Opens Excel Spreadsheets in XLViewer

Question

I have a calendar list with attachments enabled. When i attach an XLS file to an event, SharePoint wants to open it in xlviewer.aspx, but throws an error every time. I don't want to open the file in a browser. I just want to download the file directly. How can i disable the xlviewer?

The problem is similar to the problem described here, except that these affect attachments, not a document library. The list does not have a "browser" setting that i can see. The file handling in the application is set to "permissive."

Answer 1

You can try this powershell script and run it on the web front end / application server

$defaultOpenBehaviorFeatureId = $(Get-SPFeature -limit all | where {$_.displayname -eq "OpenInClient"}).Id Get-SPSite -limit ALL |foreach{ Enable-SPFeature $defaultOpenBehaviorFeatureId -url $_.URL }

Or save it as disableopeninbrowser.ps1 and run it through command line as administrator.

This will essentially enable all documents including excel files to be downloaded and opened in the client application rather than in the browser.

You can modify this script to make it web application specific. Running this script will effect the entire farm (all web applications and site collections) so make sure you test this on a test server before trying it on a production server.