Is LibreOffice breaking default apps in Win11?

[teknowledgist]

I manage computers in an academic library where we have an enterprise M365 license and need MS Office to be the default application. However, I like to give patrons a choice and have been pushing LibreOffice as a secondary office application for years. On some machines it is installed by automatically when they are set-up (“imaged” via MECM task sequence). On others it is an optional install.

Lately, on Windows 11 machines that get LibreOffice automatically, I discover that many file types do not have a default application. In other words, .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .xlsx files (and others) are blank icons and double-clicking on them brings up a dialog about what program to use. I have yet to see this on a computer that does not have LibreOffice installed, and I cannot recall a computer with LibreOffice that does not have this issue.

If these were single-user machines, then it wouldn’t be a big problem because the user could take a couple minutes to assign all the file types as they wish. However, these are multi-user machines and user profiles are deleted every couple days. Basically, because Microsoft has seen to making system-wide default file assignments all-but impossible to set, every user would have to make the settings themselves and that is just not going to fly.

I haven’t had a chance to definitively test that the install of LibreOffice is what breaks things, but it sure seems suspicious. Does anyone else see this issue? Any suggestions on how to prevent it?

Thanks!

[mikekaganski]

So - what is specifically broken in that “many file types do not have a default application” and “double-clicking on them brings up a dialog about what program to use”?
When you have not assigned applications explicitly, e.g. by installing an application that force-assigns itself to its files, the files will have no assignment.
MS provides to applications a way to inform Windows that it is able to open such and such file types, instead of assigning files to it. This way, Windows knows which installed apps can in theory open files, which helps it in cases like no explicit assignment, or in “Open With” functionality. LibreOffice does that, and tells Windows about its capabilities to open DOCX, RTF, XLSX, etc.

I see only the correct and expected behavior in your description. If you mean, that you expect that MS Office will be auto-assigned to these types, - well, if MS Office doesn’t assign these files to itself, then it’s just another application on system capable of opening the files; and the system provides the user the choice…

Note that when there is only a single such application on system, Windows wouldn’t ask questions, and use that app automatically - but that’s just because it sees that there is no choice. It’s not a problem of another app installed on the system and announced its capabilities - it’s a matter of expectations and proper configuration (well, you have to define associations, however impossible that was).

See e.g. How to configure file associations for IT Pros - Microsoft Community Hub and Setting Default File Associations using Group Policy – TheITBros Shop.

[teknowledgist]

Thanks for the reply.

I understand your argument, and I have been setting plenty of other default applications. I guess what I’m saying is that something has changed as I never had to set “Office” document types before. I’ve been installing LibreOffice as a secondary productivity tool for years, and standard, “Office” documents would simply open with Microsoft products, and LibreOffice sat in the background as an option.

It could be a Windows 11 thing, I guess, although I would have thought I would have noticed before the last couple months. I just wondered if anyone else is experiencing this as a new situation.

[mikekaganski]

It could also be an Office thing, if MS decided to avoid force-assignment of its extensions. Or both.

There was no change of extensions associations in the recent few years in LibreOffice installer code.