How to associate a file with a program in Windows ?
A very common problem for users is to associate a file with certain program. Below is additional information about how to change what programs are used to open files and how they open the files in Microsoft Windows. Any time a program makes itself as the default program to open a certain file with follow the below steps to re-associate the file back to the program you wish to open the file with. Programs that are installed / uninstalled in Windows may also change the association of files on your computer.
Microsoft Windows 8 / 7 / Windows Vista....
Click on Start → Default programs → Associate a file type or protocol with a program.
Scroll down through the list of file extension and find and select the extension you want to associated with a certain program
Click on Change program, and either select one installed program from recommended programs, or browse to find the program you want the file extension to be associated with and finally press OK.
Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP....
- Open My Computer or Explorer.
- Click the Tools menu and select Folder Options.
- Click on the File Types tab.
Adding a new file type
- Click on the New button.
- Type the name of the file extension.
- Click OK.
Modify the actions of a file type
- Locate the file type you wish to modify and highlight it.
- Click on the Advanced button.
- If you wish to modify a previous action, highlight the action in the Actions list and edit it. Otherwise, click on New and create a new action.
Removing a file type
- Locate the file extension you want to remove and highlight it.
- Click on the Delete button.
In Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME...
- Open My Computer or Explorer.
- Click the on View menu and select Folder Options.
- Click on the File Types tab.
Adding a new file type
- Click on the New Type button.
- Type the Associated extension as well as the description and the actions of the file.
Modifying actions for a file type
- Locate the file format you wish to modify and highlight it.
- Click on the Edit button.
- If you want to modify a previous action, highlight the action in the Actions list and edit it. Otherwise, click on the New and create a new file action.
Removing a file type
- Locate the file type you want to remove and highlight it.
- Click on the Remove button.
How to associate any file with any program using command line
Alternatively, in Windows XP and up, you can use the command line to very quickly associate any file extension to any program.
This can be done using the assoc command. Using this command on command line shows all existing file extension associations and their default file type.
For example you can find there the following entry .txt=textfile. This means that files with TXT file extension are handled as text files and launched by Notepad by default. You can use this to associate any extension to Notepad with use assoc command and proper parameters.
Just write this, where you select the extension you want and assigning to it a file type that launches the program you want.
assoc .extension=fileType
So if you for example want to always open files with BLABLA extension in Notepad, simply change the command to:
assoc .blabla=textfile
Really quick and efficient. Whenever you now double click on a *.blabla file it would be opened in Notepad.
