Need to stop Excel from opening in a browser at all costs.

Question

I submitted this question and got an answer that did not solve my problem, but it is entirely unclear to me how to reply to the response I received. I need to stop my computer from being capable of opening Excel files in a browser, regardless of their location, the method by which the link was sent to me, etc. I know I can simply click the ellipses and 'open with desktop app' and I know how to make the destop app the default, but if I am sent a link to a folder on SharePoint/OneDrive, I open that folder and click on one of the workbooks, it opens in a browser unless I use the ellipses and specify to open in Excel. The problem is there will be times when I forget to use the ellipses, or click something by accident. If the file opens in my browser, it's not just annoying for me (which I think is what everyone I'm asking assumes), it is instantly a real problem for a large group of people, and it can't be fixed without phone calls across large time zone differences. It's an unusual situation I know, and it's due to the nature of my work. This has never been a problem until recently.

This OneDrive setting does not make any difference whatsoever:

One of the answers I got about SharePoint required me to get admin access to each SharePoint site that I potentially might visit and change the site settings. This won't work since there are hundreds of them, and I don't want to make changes that will affect anyone else.

Right now my solution has been to go through the painful process of removing Edge from my Win 11 PC (and all other browsers). It is difficult to remove Edge, but thankfully possible in safe mode. Now when I attempt to click on one of these links nothing happens, which is an acceptable solution for me. However, this requires me to run two laptops at work (one for Excel only - which is 95% of my job) and the other for anything that needs a browser (including Teams, unfortunately).

TLDR: Is there anything I can do to ensure Excel files will not and CANNOT be displayed in a browser? Right now my solution has been to remove all browsers on one computer and run two laptops, but this makes some tasks more time consuming.