what to do if windows refuses to add an EXE to the default list?

When trying to add a default through open with> browse for your program > select the EXE, and then nothing happens it never gets added to the list, so my only guess is to manually add it though a reg edit, but not sure where to go in the reg for that. Anyone know where that would be located in the reg?

Cinema 4d r15, Ive already looked though the settings multiple times theres nothing about setting it as default in there

Callender said:

Is that a legit version?

Try START> Default Programs> Associate file type.....

You should see that the "Always use this program" checkbox is greyed out. This is because the Set Associations control panel is used make system-wide file association changes.

Other than that try:

FileTypesMan - Alternative to 'File Types' manager of Windows

I don't know anything about the sotware you're using but check preferences etc to see if there's a way to set defaults. Here's a screenshot from another program that I had problems with. There was no way to set it as the default program without configuring the following settings first!

Yes, just got it on a student discount. I was using an older version r12 but that's way outdated now, it however never had this problem. I will look into that 3rd party app now.

EDIT: Thanks that did the trick, just told it to set it on FiletypeMan and it worked.