how to change "open with" choices?

Hello: in the "Open with" dialog window that appears when you hit the "open" menu item, there's a bunch of icons on the left side in a column, like "history ", "my documents ", "desktop ", and "favorites." Doing a limited "help" search led me to the "microsoft management console ". This did not lead me any further to finding these column items. How do I change the column choices to my own preferences? Thanks.

 

You can perhaps take a look at this program called "Open Expert "
http://www.baxbex.com/openexpert.html

From the site ----

The new OpenExpert is the answer to this problem! Instead of messing around with a fixed association of a file type with only one application, it adds an "Open with" item to the context menu of the chosen file type with all the applications you decide.


So you can easily open your graphic files in your favorite paint programs or view your HTML files in either Netscape or Internet Explorer, just with a few mouse clicks. You can even add different versions of the same program to the OpenExpert menu.


Hope this helps!

Barbara-Ann

 

Alternatively, you can add to your 'Send To' menu, and right click on items and 'send them there'.

I always add Wordpad to my SendTo list, and can view things that would normally compile (.cc files), run (.bat files), etc. by righ clicking on them in Explorer and sending them to Wordpad.

(enter 'sendto' w/o quotes on your RUN start item, then add a shortcut to --whatever-- you want to appear in your 'Send To' list)

 

Well, Barbara-Ann , I don't know what happened to the OP, but I, for one, really appreciate your link. This is a gaping lack in XP. Accidentally trying to open a file with the wrong program puts that program permanently in the OpenWith menu so that others can continue repeating your original mistake. And registry editing for this is a pain.

I use ContextEdit from www.pcmag.com to control my context menus, but yours is easier for OpenWith.

Thank you.

 

Abraxas- I agree reg editing can be a pain...but could you point me in the right direction in the registry to fix this? I kinda like my WinDoze all tweaked out if ya know what I mean. Kinda aggravating to click on "choose program" and have Notepad open up!
Many thanks

 

Look beneath each of the HKEY_USERS entries and you will begin to see what I mean. Each file type needs to be configured separately, but it is at least relatively easy to remove an OpenWith entry.

Mine for txt files, for example, is under:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1957994488-688789844-1343024091-1003\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\OpenWithList

Do you mean that Notepad opens up whenever you try to choose a program to open a file instead of the list of files to choose from?

 

Yes, thats exactly what I mean....is this MY OWN XP bug?

 

--
Boomer74 ---
I guess I misunderstood you. You are having a somewhat different problem with OpenWith? What's wrong?

Is it that Notepad opens whenever you try to choose a program? If so, when does it happen exactly?

 

Abraxas -
When Im using explorer and try to open a program with something other than the default program using the context menue open with\choose program....I get notepad....strange huh? And if its something like a wav file for example....well you can imagine...lol

 

So, as soon as you click on "Choose Program ", Notepad opens immediately?

 

Thats correct

 

I'm making a hobby of tracking this thing down. It's just peculiar enough to be interesting.

Try something, please.

Go to Start > Run and type or paste:

"C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe" C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL

(all one line and substitute your HD letter, of course.)

Check the bottom box, as usual, and see if the list of programs comes up or you get Notepad again. (If you continue beyond this, you will get an "Access Denied" error because we never picked a file to open!).

 

Ok....that worked correctly

 

OK. So if the file runs correcly, then it has to be the initialization process in the registry that is your problem. We are closing in..... (but there are still 100's of caves to search ).

 

Yeah, I hear ya....heh
I noticed some files only have "open with" witha sub menue with a list of apps and also "choose program" Other files only have "open with" and no list.
I tried searching for "choose program" in the registry, but didnt turn up any results...hmmm

 

As interesting as this is, my focus fades in and out today.

Did you by any chance try the app that Barbara-Ann mentioned above? It allows you to completely disable the XP Open With menu and adds it's own OpenWith to the context menu. It has a config that allows you to add or remove programs from each file-type's OpenWith. This doesn't solve your problem, but hides it and replaces the function by a better one.

My original thought was that you could install it, then uninstall it in hopes that it returns XP to its default state and fixes the problem.

If you haven't tried it, you may really like it better than XP's. It certainly gives you more control.

Open Expert:
http://www.getafile.com/cgi-bin/merlot/get/baxbex/en/openexp.exe