changing an application associated with a device

Greetings,

This one has me stumped. I've got a device that hooks up via USB. After installing the associated applications, I plugged in the device and was presented with a list of applications to choose from. My first mistake was choosing the wrong application. My second was clicking to have it use that application every time.

Now, with choosing the wrong application with a file, this is an easy fix. But, how does one go about changing the application associated with a device?

Any thoughts are appreciated and thanks for reading of my woes.

-Lance

 

A camera. The software is required to manipulate the files. The camera doesn't show up as a mass storage device.

Thanks

 

Rascallion

After you uninstall camera software and reboot computer (per Pete C suggestion), attach your camera via USB and turn camera on. Camera should be recognized by XP with an assigned drive letter in "My Computer ". If assigned, you can remove camera/USB connection and install camera software.

OPTIONAL
In the above process when camera was attached you can click on camera/drive letter, open folder(s) and copy/paste all the picture files from camera to your computer / folder if you want. No camera programs are required to copy picture files to your computer.

 

Well, that would be the obvious first step. However, I'll bet dollars to donuts that the uninstall will not remove that registry entry since it really has more to do with the OS than the application.

I can access the camera through the Zoombrowser software (Canon proprietary), I just unfortunately chose the wrong avenue to have it automatically start. The software handles both their point-n-shoot as well as the EOS line, but does so through different handlers. What happens when I plug in the camera is I get an error that the software doesn't support my camera, the same error I get when I use the point-n-shoot acquire function within the software. All I have to do is open the software and choose acquire from EOS camera and all is well. But, besides being an extra step, something is broken and I just can't have that.

It occurred to me that the entry is most likely under the autoplay entries in the registry, much like USB/1394 mass storage devices. Makes sense, eh? Now, I've just got to locate it.

Thanks for your help. If I figure it out, I'll post the results for the search.

-Lance

 

I'd say I have to agree with you now after reading up on autoplay in Windows. All I did was modify the entry entered by the application installation.

A friend gave me access to his MSDN account and I pulled down a neat little application called autoplay.exe. It shows exactly which handlers are being called. Unfortunately, I'm still not clear on where the error lies. It's not that I have it associated with the wrong application, it's just using the wrong interface for my camera. I tried removing the switches after the application name and a few other things to no avail. But, the program gives me enough information to where I can wipe out every reference to the autoplay feature, even if uninstalling fails to.

I'll play with it tomorrow evening. If I'm unsuccessful, I'll relent to uninstalling it. I'm just hoping to get a better grasp of autoplay and defeat another area of ignorance.

Thanks to everyone for reading.

-Lance

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers

 

Why not try a registry cleaner? I use the Rose City one and its pretty good, though I think it caused a problem I describe on this BBS, giving a ghost execution of run commands.

Rose City have never responded to my requests.

I have the platinum edition, but I think with the free edition you get to repair a few entries without charge. You could use it to repair the camera entry without doing a re-install of the software suite.

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