'Open With' Menu

Hello

Is it possible to populate the right click 'open with' menu with particular programs? Does this have to be done through the registry?

I'm a bit unsure where the list is populated from - if anyone can enlighten me I'd be grateful.

Cheers!

 

Have you tried clicking on the browse button in the open with window to get at the program you want? If that's too much of a pain and you want the program added to the list, there's several ways to do it. Open windows explorer and click tools>folder options>file types. Click the "new" buttton and in the box that opens, where it says file extension, type in a phony extension. Use something that's not likely to be used by another program. Maybe something like 999. Click the OK button. Now, look in the list for 999 file (or whatever you used for an extension). Click on it once to highlight it and then click on the "change" button. Then, in the window that opens, browse to the program you want to use, click on it once and then click the open button. Then, click on OK. After doing this you should see the program in the list of files in the open with window.

Before you create the new association, it wouldn't be a bad idea to scroll through the list of file types to make sure the extension you choose to use isn't already being used by another program. If you use something like 999, it's not likely however.

 

Alternatives...
Not being to sure what your purpose is, have you thought about adding shortcuts to your sendto folder? This way if you have a file type that you do not want to register with one particular app and you don't want to browse/scroll look for an app everytime you need an addtional alternative, a right click sento option would be available.

Another method would be a dragNdrop, to a shortcut on the desktop. The desktop shortcut is to an app you often use as an alternative to open various things. Example would be a Notepad shortcut on the desktop or in the sendto folder makes it easy to drag files, I wish to peek into, and drop them on the notepad shortcut icon. I could also open notepad with the shortcut and drag and drop files into it.