Office File Launcher

Open Microsoft Office documents directly from the Visual Studio Code Explorer in their associated Windows desktop applications.

Office File Launcher keeps VS Code open and unchanged. It does not display binary Office content in an editor, close your workspace, or interrupt terminals, tasks, debugging sessions, or other editor tabs.

Features

• Double-click a supported Office file to open it in its associated desktop application.
• Right-click a supported file and select Open in Desktop Application.
• Use normal Windows file associations—no hard-coded Microsoft Office installation paths.
• Automatically remove the temporary VS Code editor tab after launching the file.
• Report missing files and launch failures through VS Code notifications.

Supported file types

CSV files are intentionally excluded so they continue to open normally in VS Code.

Requirements

• Windows desktop
• Visual Studio Code 1.85.0 or newer
• A desktop application associated with the file type you want to open
• Files in a local Windows workspace

Remote files opened through SSH, WSL, Dev Containers, or Codespaces are not supported in version 1 because they may not be accessible to Windows desktop applications.

Usage

Open a supported document from the Explorer using either method:

1. Double-click the file.
2. Right-click the file and select Open in Desktop Application.

Windows selects the application according to your configured file association. Microsoft Office does not need to be installed in a particular directory.

Extension settings

Office File Launcher does not add any settings.

Known limitations

• Version 1 supports local Windows desktop workspaces only.
• The extension cannot open a file when Windows has no associated desktop application.
• Office previews and editing inside VS Code are outside the extension's scope.

Privacy and security

Office File Launcher does not collect telemetry or transmit document contents. It passes the selected local file URI to VS Code's vscode.env.openExternal API and does not construct or execute shell commands from filenames.

Support

Report problems and request features through GitHub Issues. See SUPPORT.md for the information that is helpful in a bug report.

Development

npm install
npm run compile

Press F5 in VS Code to start an Extension Development Host.

To create an installable VSIX:

npx @vscode/vsce package

License

Released under the MIT License.