Windows 10 keeps changing my default programs

It doesn't just change the icon - it changes the program. Yes - it only occurs on my PC, not my laptop - but I don't unzip packages of files on the laptop. There are other replies to this thread - and other threads - where this is occurring on others machines. It shouldn't be ignored and dismissed as a setup issue. It is not a setup issue. There has to be a registry setting SOMEWHERE that is flagging these applications to go back to Microsoft's "recommended" applications. It doesn't occur with applications where Microsoft does not have a recommended application. 

Again - as I have stated, ad nauseum, if I open one of the thousands of zip files I get annually containing .mp3 files using WinZip - I will see them with the Windows Media Player icon - and if I open one of those .mp3 files from the zip file, it will play using Windows Media Player. If I extract those files, they will change automatically to Groove Music. That triggers all other files back to Microsoft recommended file types. .pdf files change from Adobe Reader to Edge; video files change from VLC to Windows Movies & TV app. AGAIN - I have circumvented the issue by using WinRAR to extract my files. 

If it was just one type of file being changed, then I could be persuaded to agree that it was a setup issue - but it is not. I have over 20 years of desktop support experience and I know how to change a default program. With Windows 7 and previous Windows O/S - I NEVER saw anything like this occur. NEVER. I have see the registry hack to fix this issue - adding OpenWith "". It only works temporarily. Again - which is why I am no longer using WinZip to extract my files. Regardless - the trigger is the automatic changing of the .mp3 files from Windows Media Player to the default Groove Music that changes the other files to the Windows recommended program.

I have provided enough information to Microsoft and in this thread for someone smarter than me - someone who knows the O/S a lot better than I do - to be able to find whatever setting in the registry is that is causing the issue.

Finally - WinRar is now my default zip program. If I happen to right-click on a zip file and open with WinZip and extract my files, it will change my default zip program from WinRar to WinZip.

Listen. An mp3 file is an mp3 file. Open ANY mp3 player you may happen to have installed.

I will open Videolan's VLC Media Player as an Example:

Here we see some music files in my VLC Player Menu List:

You will note they all show as iTunes Media. That doesn't mean a damn thing unless I click the file directly from the folder. Then it will open with iTunes (which happens to be my default MP3

Player. But if I select 6 or 8 of them from here I can play them in VLC (which also plays mp3 files) with no problem.

Now I just press play...thus:

Got it? Same works for the reader. Just add the files to your library and:

Don't be put off by the Adobe Reader icons. It's just that I know how to set a default program and LEAVE it set. (I use the chosen program to open the files ever after).

Now we open the book:  

and so it goes in the wonderful world of computing.

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Windows 10 is a program developed and maintained by Microsoft.  If Microsoft's program "Windows 10" is changing the default programs to THEIR programs, then it is Microsoft that is making the change.  Unless Microsoft is claiming that Windows 10 is not their program. 

The defaults are not being changed to anybody else's programs, they are just being changed to Microsofts' programs.  If this was just some random reassignment, I might believe you, but its not.  The change ALWAYS goes to Microsofts' programs.

It would be happening on everybody's computers if that were true.

As I have already explained...and demonstrated...it is not.

Its changing more than just the icons.  It is changing the actual program assignments.  This is a phenomena that has just recently started.  It has been going on for the past month or so.  I have not added any new programs during this period.  The only thing that may have changed is windows, through their mandatory updates.

I can start the program and then open the required file, but we have millions of files in a very elaborate and deep directory structure.  To open the program and then drill down to the file that I need to open, would be prohibitively time consuming.  I often need to access a hundred or more files in a single day.  It is much more efficient to work directly from the file manager and double click on the file I want to open.

Microsoft has done this before, and subsequently been sued, and lost, here in the United States as well as the EU.  Since it has been a few years since they lost their last lawsuit, it looks like they are at it again.