Open Visio 2013 drawings in separate window

When you’re working with multiple VSD(x) files, Microsoft Visio by default opens all drawings in the same program window. This is nice and tidy for some users, but may also be unhandy when you need to redraw or compare drawings.

To adjust VISIO behaviour to open all drawings in a new application window, do the following:

1. Open Microsoft Visio.
2. Go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced.
3. Check the Put All Settings In Windows Registry option.
4. Run Registry Editor (regedit).
5. Navigate to the following registry key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Visio\Application\
   or if you have Visio 2013:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Visio\Application\
6. In the right pane, right-click on SingleInstanceFileOpen, and then select Modify.
7. Update the value of SingleInstanceFileOpen from 1 to 0.