Forum Discussion
Power BI App
I have consolidated all my Power BI dashboards into a single navigation page in the Power App.
I also added an Excel file link into the navigation menu, and I would like the file to open directly in the Excel Desktop Application instead of opening in Excel for Web or downloading to the Downloads folder.
Is this achievable?
I have tried several methods, but the file either opens in Excel Web or gets downloaded automatically.
Hi Amos_Lim,
Currently, Power BI Apps do not support opening Excel files directly in the Desktop application. App will only open the file in Excel web due to platform and security restrictions.As a workaround, you can add the Excel link to open in a new tab. Users can then choose Open in Desktop App from Excel Web, or use a download link to open it locally.💡 Helpful? Give a Kudos 👍 — keep the community growing
✅ Solved your issue? Mark as Solution ✔️ — help others find it faster
Best regards,
Rupasree Achari | BI & Fabric Analytics Engineer
2 Replies
Hi Amos_Lim,
Currently, Power BI Apps do not support opening Excel files directly in the Desktop application. App will only open the file in Excel web due to platform and security restrictions.As a workaround, you can add the Excel link to open in a new tab. Users can then choose Open in Desktop App from Excel Web, or use a download link to open it locally.💡 Helpful? Give a Kudos 👍 — keep the community growing
✅ Solved your issue? Mark as Solution ✔️ — help others find it faster
Best regards,
Rupasree Achari | BI & Fabric Analytics EngineerHi Amos_Lim
It is not achievable directly. Power BI App navigation links always open file in Excel for Web or trigger a download. There is not a supported way to force a link to open in Excel Desktop from within Power BI App.
If you want users to open in desktop, workaround is to share file via OneDrive/SharePoint and instruct them to use “Open in Desktop App” option once the file opens in Excel Online
