How do i associate a file with a program in windows 7

So how did you get to that status in the first place?!?! It really boggles my mind! Sorry for not actually adding anything constructive to the discussion but this whole perception by MS of its customers as being non-trustworthy little children really cheeses me off Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. Add a new file association in Windows 7 [closed] Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 9 months ago. Active 8 years, 1 month ago. Viewed 82k times. Improve this question. Peter Peter 1, 4 4 gold badges 15 15 silver badges 32 32 bronze badges. Brad Larson: Sorry, but this is clearly not OT. Questions about keyboards and monitors which are things that programmers need, too are off topic for the same reason.

Popularity of a question does not mean that it's on topic. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Name it according to your desired file extension, e. If it exists already, you can skip this step.

Set the default value of the key you just created to some unique name that isn't used yet, e. Again, if it's set already, skip this step. Create another new key using the same name you picked in the previous step. Skip this too, if the key exists already. Set the default value of the new key to the name that should appear in Windows Explorer and other programs as the file type. Right click the new key and create a subkey DefaultIcon.

Create another new key next to DefaultIcon and call it shell. Some verbs are preset and will automatically use localized names, e. For each verb create a sub key command and set its default value to the program to be run. Also make sure to include all parameters needed, adding quotes if there are spaces inside, e. Improve this answer. Sled 17k 22 22 gold badges silver badges bronze badges.

Mario Mario 34k 5 5 gold badges 55 55 silver badges 75 75 bronze badges. I have accepted this as the answer, thank you Mario. But why did MS do this? Not very helpful of them The old dialog could be overwhelming for unexperienced users and had stuff most people never used like DDE settings , but cutting it as a whole was most likely a bad idea.

Nice one. Let me mention that the second key is not a subkey of the first one ; It's probably safest to let explorer create all those keys with the "Open With Another reason for the program of choice not appearing in the 'open with' dialogue box is that the software hasn't created an entry in the register properly when it was installed.

You cannot change an association for a file type or protocol and leave it blank or disassociated. You must select a new program. The options you set here only apply to your user account. Your choices won't affect other user accounts on this computer.

Did you find this helpful? Yes No. Not accurate. Not enough detail. Needs more pictures. Once you have selected your preferred program, click " OK " to change the file association.

NOTE: The " Always use the selected program to open this kind of file " option is automatically selected in Method 2 and cannot be unchecked. This is because the Set Associations control panel is used to make system-wide file association changes. While these two methods allow you to manually change file associations, they can be modified in other ways as well.

For example, when you open a Web browser , it may ask if you want it to be the default program for all Web-related files. If you select "Yes," the program will update all the corresponding file associations for you. Similarly, some software installers automatically configure the newly installed program as the default program for each file types it supports.

If either of these changes occur, you can use one of the two methods above to override the changes and choose your preferred program for each file type. Home Help Center Question. How do I change file associations in Windows 7?