how to set default program to open file windows 7

#HOW TO SET DEFAULT PROGRAM TO OPEN FILE WINDOWS 7 INSTALL#
#HOW TO SET DEFAULT PROGRAM TO OPEN FILE WINDOWS 7 FULL#
#HOW TO SET DEFAULT PROGRAM TO OPEN FILE WINDOWS 7 WINDOWS 7#

Like in this example we’re selecting Foobar2000 as the default programs for just certain types of audio files while VLC and WMP open others. From Windows Explorer, you can also right-click on an empty area of the folder, and choose ' New > Shortcut'.Or you can choose which file types to associate each program with.

You can cancel the drag-drop operation by hitting Esc. When Windows shows the ' Create link in ' tooltip, you're ready to drop the shortcut.

Optionally rename your shortcut to something meaningful: Tip - hold down the Alt key when dragging a program or a shortcut from its current location to another: that will create a shortcut.

#HOW TO SET DEFAULT PROGRAM TO OPEN FILE WINDOWS 7 FULL#

The ' Shortcut' tab should automatically be selected paste the full path of the file name at the end of the ' Target' text field, and click OK to save the change. In that case, copy and paste an existing shortcut to Notepad (see note below), and add a file path as ' argument': right-click on the shortcut you just created and choose ' Properties'. txt' extension anyway)? Assume that you want a particular TXT file to always open in Notepad - for example, a file that automatically includes the date and time when you open it (See our ' Automatically insert date when opening Notepad' tutorial - a nifty feature when you log events manually). Remember when we set, earlier, Metapad as the default program for text files (for the '. But you can override that behavior by creating a custom shortcut.

#HOW TO SET DEFAULT PROGRAM TO OPEN FILE WINDOWS 7 WINDOWS 7#

The default program settings in Windows 7 control, well, the default behavior: when you double-click on a file, Windows forwards the path of that file to the default application (saved in the registry), which in turns displays the information it contains. Once you've chosen your default application, click on the OK button at the bottom:įorce a file to always open in a specific program Most programs will be inside the ' Program Files (x86 )' folder. On a 64-bit version of Windows 7, you have two folders: ' Program Files' stores all the 64-bit optimized applications, and the ' Program Files (x86)' stores all 32-bit applications, which can also run on 64-bit versions of Windows.

On a 32-bit version of Windows 7, everything is inside the ' Program Files' folder. If you don't see the program listed, click on the Browse button in that same dialog: navigate through your Program Files folder (where Windows stores all your applications by default). If one them is the application you were looking for, click on it once to select it: But this time, when the dialog opens, click instead on the down-pointing arrow next to ' Other Programs': Windows 7 will display all programs it thinks are capable of handling that particular file, and therefore could be set as the default. Coming from the folder listing, follow the same steps: right-click on the file, choose ' Open with', and click ' Choose default program'. You can pick any program you want to handle a certain file type / file extension: just make sure that this application does in fact support that type of file. Pick another program as default file handler Notice on the screenshot how the exact same document (an empty HTML -web page- file) appears with either the Google Chrome or Internet Explorer icon, depending on which web browser is currently set as the default.

#HOW TO SET DEFAULT PROGRAM TO OPEN FILE WINDOWS 7 INSTALL#

The file icon can also be changed when you install a new application that can handle that particular file type. Unfortunately, unlike Windows Vista and earlier versions of Windows, you cannot (easily) change the default file icons for various file types in Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10. To make one of those the default program, click on it, make sure that the ' Always use the selected program to open this kind of file' checkbox is checked, and click OK: Note - something to keep in mind: changing the default program will sometimes also change the icon for this particular type of file. A popup / dialog will open, listing at least as many applications as the ones listed in the submenu. Make one of the suggested applications the default programĬlick on the last item of that submenu, ' Choose default program', to pick a different default application.

How to set default program to open file windows 7