File Association

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Guest

Is there a way to change the default choice for associating
a file? Microsoft's knowledge base says the following:

Windows XP displays a dialog box that indicates that no
program is associated with this file. The dialog box offers
two choices for creating an association:

* Use the Web service to find the appropriate program
* Select the program from a list

Unless you want to find and download software that opens
this file type, the best choice is to select the program
from a list.

But the default is to use a Web service. Makes a lot of
sense that their recommendation isn't the default. It
would be so much more convenient to have the default
"select from a list" so you could just press enter and
bypass this annoying screen. Anyone know how to make this
happen?
 
To bypass the "Use the Web service" dialog, you need to add/modify a
registry key:

Open Registry Editor and navigate to:

[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

In the right-pane, create a new REG_DWORD value named "InternetOpenWith"
Double-click "InternetOpenWith" and set it's value to 0

To make the changes globally (affecting all the user profiles), add the
value here:
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

Now, you'll see the Programs list dialog box directly.

* HKLM refers to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
* HKCU refers to HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Additional Information:
There is also a policy setting NoInternetOpenWith, that may not be needed in
this case.

[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
REG_DWORD named "NoInternetOpenWith"

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Window XP Shell/User
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k


Is there a way to change the default choice for associating
a file? Microsoft's knowledge base says the following:

Windows XP displays a dialog box that indicates that no
program is associated with this file. The dialog box offers
two choices for creating an association:

* Use the Web service to find the appropriate program
* Select the program from a list

Unless you want to find and download software that opens
this file type, the best choice is to select the program
from a list.

But the default is to use a Web service. Makes a lot of
sense that their recommendation isn't the default. It
would be so much more convenient to have the default
"select from a list" so you could just press enter and
bypass this annoying screen. Anyone know how to make this
happen?
 
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