Vista tip of the week: Change file type associations on the fly

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re: Vista tip of the week: Change file type associations on the fly

lotsamystuff — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:39:53 GMT

Ah, used this very tip this morning, setting up some brand-spanking new Vista machines to use the preferred media player rather than the crap bundled one. The seminar facilitator I was working with was almost in a panic. It should come as no surprise that my Vista skills aren't up to par yet, so this was perfect timing. Thanks, Paul.

re: Vista tip of the week: Change file type associations on the fly

Sir_Timbit — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:58:32 GMT

Is that per user, or would the assoc command set it for all users?

re: Vista tip of the week: Change file type associations on the fly

jono1 — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:46:44 GMT

Is there any way in VIsta to get back the functionality to choose programs for different actions in the right click menu?

For example, in XP I used to be able to set the default action for a .png file to open with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, but have an option in the right click menu called "Edit" which would open it in Adobe Fireworks. I can't see any way to do that in Vista.

re: Vista tip of the week: Change file type associations on the fly

BrightrevCarl — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:53:32 GMT

This is actually a really cool tip. I've had file associations break on me and had a really tough time fixing them. Adobe PDF seems to be a particular culprit, with Acrobat 6, 7 and 8 and Adobe Reader 7 and 8 - sometimes in upgrading it just stops wanting to work right. Being able to just remove the association and start over is definitely a benefit.

re: Vista tip of the week: Change file type associations on the fly

amanzi — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:48:15 GMT

The big difference is that it's difficult to remove a file association in Vista using the GUI. For example, a while back I accidentally set Notepad to open *.ISO files. So all the ISO files had the little Notepad icon. I couldn't figure out how to remove this association, but I also didn't want to replace it with another association. That tip you provided would have worked in this case - useful little utility!

>assoc /?

Displays or modifies file extension associations

ASSOC [.ext[=[fileType]]]

.ext Specifies the file extension to associate the file type with

fileType Specifies the file type to associate with the file extension

Type ASSOC without parameters to display the current file associations.

If ASSOC is invoked with just a file extension, it displays the current

file association for that file extension. Specify nothing for the file

type and the command will delete the association for the file extension.

re: Vista tip of the week: Change file type associations on the fly

johnbaxter — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:47:34 GMT

The shift key isn't necessary with right click in order to have "Open with..." in the menu. Shift does add other useful things, however, including the "Pin to Start Menu" you told us about before (Thanks!) , "Add to Quick Launch", "Open read only" (presumably only for a document, not an app). The menu on my machine is over an inch taller with shift than without.

Right click for Open with also works in the old "who cares any more?" version of Windows. I could easily be convinced that it was in Win 9x--I learned about it long ago at the local computer club meetings.

All that aside, it's really useful.

re: Vista tip of the week: Change file type associations on the fly

Flenser — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:34:06 GMT

You don't need to hold down shift when you right-click. The Open With option is always available.