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Although I am able to go through the "regular" process to associate a program with an extension it doesn't work. After going through the browse process and selecting the program it brings me back to the "open with" window. The program I've selected does not appear in the "open with" window and it appears that it is simply ignoring me.
I've also tried the "Default Programs" route but wind up at the same "open with" window that still ignores me.
Suggestions?
[EDIT]
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
After playing around a lil I think I've figured it out.. [for me at least..]
The program that you're pointing to isn't registered correctly.
In regedit: Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applicationsand find your .exe name.
Navigate under its name to shell>open>command. In the Default change its location to the actual location of the executable, hit okay and then try and reassociate the file type as you normally would.
Let me know if that doesn't seem to work.
The tool appeared to work successfully -- I've had very good results from nirsoft previously -- but the previous behavior remains. I'm still asked what to open this type of file with even after specifying the OPEN action in the tool.
It's ridiculous that Windows should behave this way - asking me what I want to open the file with, letting me make a choice, and then just discarding that choice and reverting to, of all things, Media Center.
(Parenthetically, is there a way I can at least get Media Center OFF of that list? It can't open anything in question.)
How could this issue have hung around so long without a solution from Microsoft?
I appreciate the compilation of links, if only as a litany of the things I've tried to get this elementary problem resolved. I resisted Win7 and hung on to XP until just a month ago. I'm beginning to regret upgrading.
I'm still running dual-boot. Maybe I need to go back to XP, as it looks like Microsoft still hasn't worked out the fundamentals yet in Windows 7.
The defect continues to plague me with other filetypes, and now extends even to successfully-associated files.
On my system, Default Programs dutifully shows that .txt files are Notepad++ documents, associated with the Notepad++ editor, as they should be. (Notepad++'s installation did this: I still can't. If I try, Windows discards my choice.)
But a .txt file shows a blank icon, and when I double-click on a .txt file, Windows tells me there's no application associated with this filetype, and I should establish one in Default Programs.
It's hard to understand how so elemental a fault escaped testing -- and it's harder to understand why there's no response from Microsoft on this issue.
Clearly, the Win7/64 file association mechanism is badly broken and urgently needs attention.
Since it isn't getting any, can anyone tell me how to hack the registry to get a file association successfully established, or better yet, to populate the list of eligible programs listed in Default Programs, to include my choices instead of Microsoft's?
Thanks to earlier posts by Travis, among others, I figured out my own solution.
Zero thanks to Microsoft for this, and a brickbat for the lack of a response at all.
Check to see if your application is listed under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications
If it's there, it will be a key named for the primary executable (utorrent.exe, for example).
If it isn't there, which mine wasn't, you will have to create it. I recommend that you study the key structures for other applications in this section.
If you go postal on your registry, you will screw up your system. In that case you will have to wipe it and reinstall Windows. So don't do that. But don't be terrified of editing the registry either. The worst you can do is mess it up, which is what's already wrong.
You'll need to create the subkeys that you see in other applications. Take a look at the entry for notepad.exe, and for some other non-Microsoft applications you've installed, to see how to set up the keys, values, pathnames and pass a parameter to your application. You'll need to create Shell, Open and Command subkeys, and give a value to the default in Command.
When you've created this correctly, the application should now appear as one of the choices, (maybe even the only choice) when you attempt to associate an application with the filetype.
didn't help:(
