How to Open an XLS File in Excel. XLS files are Excel workbook files created in Excel 97 or Excel 2003. The 2007, 2010 and 2013 versions of the program use the XLSX format by default to save ...

Navigate to Zoho Sheet, the free online Excel viewer (see Resources). Click the "Browse" button in the Local File section, select the XLS file and click "Open." Click the "View" button to view the ...

After the MS16-088 patch is applied, though, Excel refuses to open XLS files, showing a blank screen instead of a workbook. Poster conker123 on the TechNet Office forum described the problem ...

Please ensure the .xls file is not opened in other workbooks, add-ins, or apps. After coming to that conclusion, simply attempt to open the file again in Excel to see if the problem no longer exists.

If your Excel files are opening in Notepad on Windows PC, here's how you can reset the settings to make .xls, .xlsx, etc files open in Excel.