How to change the default program to open a file with
Posted on December 17, 2008 at 5:23 am
With so many great open source programs on the market, it’s pretty normal for people to use third party text editors, photo editors, etc instead of the default programs installed on Windows.
For example, when I double click on the TXT file, it always opens up in Notepad. That used to be OK, but now that I have installed Notepad++, an awesome text/code editor with tons more features, I would rather have all my text files open with Notepad++ instead of Windows Notepad.
So how can I change the default program for opening a particular file? Well there are two ways. I’ll first go through the easy method.
Method 1 – Use Open With Dialog
The easiest way to change the default launching program for a file type is to right-click on the file, click on Open With and click on Choose Program.
Now choose the program that you want to use to open files of this type. If it is not in the list, you can click the Browse button and go to the Program Files folder and click on the EXE file.
Once you choose the program, make sure to check the Always use the selected program to open this file box. Then click OK.
That’s pretty much it, now any time I click on a TXT file, it will open using the program I selected in the Open With dialog.
Method 2 – File Types Dialog
The second method is to open My Computer, go to Tools, and click on Folder Options.
Now click on the File Types tab and scroll down to the file type extension you want to change, in my case TXT.
Click on the Change button and the same dialog pops up like when you click Choose Program from the Open With menu. Go ahead and pick the program from the list and click OK.
You can do this for any file type on your computer, including pictures, sounds, videos, PDF documents, etc. I know that I prefer to use Foxit Reader over Adobe Reader any day because it’s so much faster. Enjoy!
» Filed Under Computer Tips
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Hello, I want to change the program executed when I choose the option “Edit” in the pop-up of the first picture. Any ideas?
Thank you.
thanks so much. this was exactly the steps i needed to change some of my file extension preferences!
Thanks for the article! I work with files that have some custom file extensions and I always have to associate them with the correct program in Windows. Is there a program that can do this also?
I did this, but how can you undo it? I want to change the default program back to the original! Thanks
I’ve accidentally changed the default program of .DAT files in notepad, how can i undo this? Thanks!
Salve ho un problema, modificando l’apertura di un programma tipo word in seguito si è impostato per tutti gli altri programmi presenti sul desktop, quindi non riesco ad aprire nessun’altro programma.
Come posso fare a modificare le impostazioni?appena cambio modalità di apertura per un qualsiasi programma, automaticamente si imposta su tutti gli altri.
Il mio sistema operativo è windows 7!
Se qualkuno sa aiutarmi lo ringrazio anticipatamente
El problema es que al dar click derecho y propiedades, cambie el programa para abrir un archivo que mi pc no sabia como abrirlo y le asine abrir con java y el icono del archivo se quedo como imagen del icono de java, no se como hacerle para regresarlo a su icono original.
Graias