Default file format

This policy setting controls the default file format for saving workbooks in Excel.

If you enable this policy setting, you can set the default file format for Excel from among the following options:

- Excel Workbook (.xlsx).This option is the default configuration in Excel 2016.
- Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (.xlsm)
- Excel Binary Workbook (.xlsb)
- Web Page (.htm; .html)
- Excel 97-2003 Workbook (.xls)
- Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (.xls)
- OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods)

Users can choose to save workbooks in a different file format than the default.

If you disable or you do not configure this policy setting, Excel saves new workbooks in the Office Open XML format with an .xlsx extension.

Supported on: At least Windows 7

Save Excel files as


  1. Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry Pathsoftware\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
    Value Namedefaultformat
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value51
  2. Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook (*.xlsm)
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry Pathsoftware\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
    Value Namedefaultformat
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value52
  3. Excel Binary Workbook (*.xlsb)
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry Pathsoftware\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
    Value Namedefaultformat
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value50
  4. Web Page (*.htm; *.html)
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry Pathsoftware\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
    Value Namedefaultformat
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value44
  5. Excel 97-2003 Workbook (*.xls)
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry Pathsoftware\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
    Value Namedefaultformat
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value56
  6. Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (*.xls)
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry Pathsoftware\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
    Value Namedefaultformat
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value39
  7. OpenDocument Spreadsheet (*.ods)
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry Pathsoftware\policies\microsoft\office\16.0\excel\options
    Value Namedefaultformat
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value60


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