Why is the wrong MATLAB version started when using Excel Link?

When starting Excel it opens the wrong MATLAB version (R2006b instead of R2006a), although only MATLAB 7.2 (R2006a) includes a license for Excel Link.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The reason for opening MATLAB 7.3 (R2006b) is that Excel sees this version registered as an automation server in the registry.

You can solve the issue by executing the following steps:

1) Close all MATLAB sessions and Excel on your machine

2) Open a command terminal (run as adminstrator)

3) Navigate to the "matlabroot"/bin directory of the MATLAB version you want to use, and run the following command:

matlab /regserver

(Details regarding this start option can be found in the documentation.)

4) Close MATLAB

5) Start Excel again

If after doing the steps above, Excel is still calling the wrong version of MATLAB, unregister the unwanted version as follows:

1) Close all MATLAB sessions and Excel on your machine

2) Open a command terminal (run as adminstrator)

3) Navigate to the "matlabroot"/bin directory of the unwanted MATLAB version that you do not want Excel to call, and run the following command:

matlab /unregserver

3) Close MATLAB

4) Start Excel again

Now the approppriate MATLAB version should be started.

Note: It may be useful to use the "ver", "matlabroot", and "computer" commands to see which version of MATLAB has been launched by Excel, in what directory it is installed, and whether it is 32 (pcwin) or 64-bit (pcwin64).

[Friedrich]

This wont work when using the "Full MATLAB Desktop" setting and having 32bit/64bit MATLAB of the same version installed because it uses a different ProgID ("MATLAB.Desktop.Application" instead of "MATLAB.ApplicatioN") which is not handled correctly by the registration/unregistration of the MATLAB COM Server.