Note: This solution may be deactivated by Microsoft in the future, as of 10/14/25 it is still effective.


It is still possible to force files to open in their respective desktop applications by manually modifying a configuration file.

  1. Completely close Teams (right-click on the Teams icon near the clock > Exit Teams).
  2. Go to the folder %localappdata%\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams
  3. Open the app_settings.json file with Notepad or another text editor.
  4. Change "open_file_in_desktop_app":false to "open_file_in_desktop_app":true
  5. Save the file.
  6. Relaunch Microsoft Teams. From now on, files will open by default in their respective desktop applications.


PS Script (Admin elevation not needed)

(Get-Content -Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams\app_settings.json") -replace '"open_file_in_desktop_app":false', '"open_file_in_desktop_app":true' | Set-Content -Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\MSTeams_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Microsoft\MSTeams\app_settings.json"