Default Programs - Associate a File Type or Protocol in Windows 8

How to Associate a File Type or Protocol with a Program in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

A default program is the program that Windows uses automatically when you open a particular type of file.

This tutorial will show you how to associate a file extension type or protocol to always "open with" a program of your choice by default in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1.

   Note

• These Default Programs association settings are only applied to your user account and will not affect other users on the PC.
• The program that you select as the default for the file extension type or protocol must support opening that file extension or protocol in order for the program to be able to open it. For example, a .TXT will open with Notepad or Wordpad, but it will not open with MSPaint.

OPTION ONE

Associate File Type or Protocol with Program in Control Panel in 8/8.1

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1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Default Programs icon.​

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2. Click/tap on the Associate a file type or protocol with a program link. (see screenshot below)​

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3. Either double click/tap on the file extension or protocol, or click/tap on the file extension or protocol and click/tap on the Change Program button of the one you want to change the "current default' program association of. (see screenshot below)​

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4. If the program you want to associate is not listed, then click/tap on the More Options link if available. (see screenshot below)​

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5. Click/tap on a listed program that you want to associate. (see screenshots below)​

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   Note

If the program you wanted to select is still not listed, then you could do either option below if available.

   Note

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• Click/tap on Look for an app in the Store to go to the Store to search and find an app to install, then start this tutorial over to select the new app to be associated as the default program.
• Click/tap on the Look for another app on this PC link, navigate to the program's exe file, select it, and click/tap on the Open button to have it associated as the default program.

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6. If you associated a program, then you will see this below as "Set Associations" updates and reloads.​

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7. Repeat the steps above if you would like to associate another file extenstion or protocol to be opened with a different program of your choice by default.​

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8. When finished, close the "Set Associations" window. (see screenshot below step 3)​

OPTION TWO

Associate File Type or Protocol with App in PC Settings in Windows 8.1

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1. Open PC settings, and click/tap on Search & apps on the left side. (see screenshot below)​

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2. Click/tap on Defaults on the left side in "Search & apps", and do step 3 or 4 below for how you would like to choose a default app by. (see screenshot below)​

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3. To Choose Default Apps by File Type​

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A) Click/tap on the Default apps by file type link at the bottom. (see screenshot below step 2)​

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B) Click/tap on the current default app or + Choose a default of the file type name that you want to change the default app of, then click/tap on a listed installed app that you want set as it's default. (see screenshot below)​

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C) When finished setting file type associations, go to step 5 below.​

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4. To Choose Default Apps by Protocol​

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A) Click/tap on the Default apps by protocol link at the bottom. (see screenshot below step 2)​

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B) Click/tap on the current default app or + Choose a default of the file protocol name that you want to change the default app of, then click/tap on a listed installed app that you want set as it's default. (see screenshot below)​

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C) When finished setting file type associations, go to step 5 below.​

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5. You can now close PC settings if you like.​

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Set Your Default Programs in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Change Default Program of a File using "Open with" in Windows 8 and 8.1
• Disable "You have new apps that can open this type of file" Notification in Windows 8
• How to Restore Default File Extension Type Associations in Windows 8 and 8.1
• Add or Remove "Look for an app in the Store" Link in Windows 8 "Open with"
• How to Change the Default Program of the "Edit" Context Menu in Windows
• How to Unassociate a File Extension Type in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Hide or Show Known File Name Extensions in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Create a "Default Apps" Shortcut in Windows 8.1

 

[DG35GDTR]

Shawn,

This is a great tutorial but it's not working for me because I don't have the existing program I need in my Default Programs section to be able to edit it!

Basically I was trying to open .exe files and nothing would happen. I looked online for a solution, downloaded a registry code that would allow me to unblock the .exe files that I was trying to open, but all that happened then was that whenever I clicked on "unblock files" it came up with "This file does not have a program associated with it..." etc, hence me finding this page.

But when I've gone into Default Programs and tried to sort out the .exe association problem, there isn't even an .exe entry there!

Print screen:

Any suggestions?

 

[Brink]

Hello Chemilyx, and welcome to Eight Forums.

You could download the .reg file for the listed .exe option in the tutorial below to fix this. It will restore the default associations for .exe files.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8486-default-file-associations-restore-windows-8-a.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[DG35GDTR]

Sadly not, it's still doing exactly the same thing

 

[Brink]

You could try using the lnk (LNK) option to see if that may help.

If not, then you could also do a system restore at boot using a restore point (if available) dated before this happened.

 

[tomkington]

Hi there,

I have a very similar but slightly different issue that is making me pull my hair out.

I have 2 versions on Indesign. I recently installed Indesign CS6 for work with one client, but wish indesign CS5 to remain the default program when I double click on an indesign file as everyone else I work for still use indesign CS5.

When I follow the instructions everything seems to work, I select the .indd extension, that I wish to change the association of, and then navigate to the 'indesign.exe' in the CS5 folder to set it as default, but it does not change anything. It just remains saying CS6!. Whenever I open a document it opens in CS6 and I have to close and open through CS5s 'open file' interface, wasting tons of time as I deal with dozens of files every hour... hmmmm

any ideas?

thanks in advance

Tom

 

[Brink]

Hello Tom, and welcome to Eight Forums.

I'm not sure how that's going to work with basically two versions of the same program. Does it have CS5 listed in Default Programs to select?

If not, then you might consider using a virtual machine to have CS6 running in it, while you keep only CS5 on your host to avoid the conflict between them.

 

[tomkington]

yeah, it's curious, it has always been straight forward with XP, they would act as separate programs.

CS5 version doesn't come up in the list, I had to then choose by browsing

T

 

[ddadda82]

To associate Pale Moon with HTTP/HTTPs and FTP for a computer that has been installed with Nightly, we'd need this program: Register Firefox Portable with Default Programs in Windows 7/Vista - The Winhelponline Blog

Somehow Windows 8 refuses to register Pale Moon if the machine has had Nightly installed. Not sure whichever doing this bug.

 

[FlyingTrees]

Hello Chemilyx, and welcome to Eight Forums.

You could download the .reg file for the listed .exe option in the tutorial below to fix this. It will restore the default associations for .exe files.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8486-default-file-associations-restore-windows-8-a.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Shawn,
How do you save a .reg file to your desktop as it says in your tutorial? Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello Chemilyx, and welcome to Eight Forums.

You could download the .reg file for the listed .exe option in the tutorial below to fix this. It will restore the default associations for .exe files.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8486-default-file-associations-restore-windows-8-a.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Shawn,
How do you save a .reg file to your desktop as it says in your tutorial? Thanks.

Hello FlyingTrees, and welcome to Eight Forums.


One way is to right click on the download link for the file type, and click on "Save target as" or "Save link as", then select to save it to your desktop?

 

[klepp0906]

anyone able to fill me in on how to change which program is used to "EDIT" via the context menu? I was able to change my file association for HTML files to my Browser (chromium) however when I try to edit the html files it opens up Microsoft Word ffs lol. I am looking for it to open notepad but obviously only when using EDIT.

IIRC this is possible if using Windows Explorer via the Internet Options applet in control panel however, naturally - I am not using internet explorer and so the page which normally allows you to choose default programs for this, that, and the other thing - is no longer present.

 

[klepp0906]

I got it! For anyone who runs into a similar problem regardless of filetype/extension - FileTypesMan was able to handle it for me. That guys software is the shizzle!

 

[Brink]

Hey Kevin,

If you like, the tutorial below will add "Open with Notepad" to the context menu to make it easier to edit files in Notepad without affecting your current associations.

Open with Notepad - Add or Remove from Context Menu of Files - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[chickendippers]

Hi there,
Thanks for your helpful article.

However the final screenshot illustrates the problem I am having; there is no "More options" options when I try changing the .ftp filetype association.

I'd like to open the .ftp protocol in an actual FTP client (Filezilla, WinSCP etc.) but this doesn't appear to be possible?

If anyone knows a way to achieve this, I would be most appreciative.

 

[Brink]

Hello chickendippers, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Are you able to use "Open with" to select the program you want to open the file with instead?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/7811-open-change-default-program-windows-8-a.html

 

[chickendippers]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply. That gave me a thought; I created a file with the extension .ftp and then was able to use the 'open file with' technique to assign it to Filezilla.

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

Great news. I'm glad to hear that you got it sorted.

 

[NickP100]

How do I default a TCX file that I have accidentally defaulted Notepad to Open. I want it to default back to Unknown Application.

I tried deleting the command in Regedit, but it hasnt defaulted it.

Thanks in advance
Nick

 

[Brink]

Hello Nick, and welcome to Eight Forums.

You could use an option in the tutorial below to unassociate .tcx files. I like OPTION THREE.

File Extension Type - Unassociate - Windows 7 Help Forums