Big file associations problem

Jose Hidalgo · 17 Apr 2016

Hi everybody, sorry for bothering you. :) For the record I'm running a freshly installed W7 x64 SP1. Here's the history of my problems :

First I had a thumbnail caching problem with my audio files : whenever I put a .jpg file inside an audio file folder, all the audio files showed the .jpg file thumbnail in Explorer ! So, I went to this topic ( Default File Type Associations - Restore ) and I used the following .reg scripts :

Disable_Thumbnail_Cache
Default_MP3
Default_m4a
Enable_Thumbnail_Cache

Unfortunately, I'm starting to wonder if these scripts didn't mess up my system. Here's why.

I also went to this topic ( File Extension Icon - Change Default Icon ) and I used FileTypesMan ( FileTypesMan - Alternative to 'File Types' manager of Windows ) to associate file extensions with icons. Being a foobar2000 user, I was expecting to use all the standard foobar icons that are in the "foobar2000\icons" folder (mp3.ico, flac.ico, etc.). So, using FileTypesMan, for mp3 extension I selected the mp3.ico, for flac extension I selected the flac.ico, etc..

The problem is that "apparently" FileTypesMan seems to remember only the LAST change I made, and applies it to all audio files regardless of their extension. What I mean is that if I change the icon for .mp3 extension, I close/restart FileTypesMan, and I go to the .flac extension, it will have the path to the .mp3 icon too, even if I clearly entered the path to the .flac icon previously ! And vice-versa.

Even weirder : if I select any audio file extension in FileTypesMan (e.g. mp3) and I right click and choose "Open file type in RegEdit", then RegEdit will take me to HKCR\Applications\foobar2000.exe regardless of the file extension, and not to the corresponding file type ! Is this normal ?...

Can you please tell me what's wrong and what can I do ? Thank you. :)

Brink · 17 Apr 2016

Hello Jose,

The .reg files in the Default File Type Associations - Restore tutorial will only restore the default association for the file type you merged.

If you like, you could do a system restore using a restore point dated before you tried to change the icons to undo it.

System Restore

Jose Hidalgo · 17 Apr 2016

Hi Brink, thanks for your reply.

In fact I didn't mean to imply that the .reg files were responsible for my problem. I'm pretty sure they're 100% trustworthy. What I was trying to say is that for some unknown reason maybe in my particular case I had already a registry problem that could have been made worse by the .reg files. I don't know, I'm just trying to find a solution.

Unfortunately a restore point is not possible, so I need to find another solution to make things right again, even if it means touching the registry (with some help of course). Thanks !

Brink · 17 Apr 2016

That's ok. I was just stating that I didn't think that was the issue.

You might see if rebuilding the icon cache and resetting the thumbnail cache may help.

Icon Cache - Rebuild

Thumbnail Cache - Clear and Reset

Jose Hidalgo · 20 Apr 2016

Problem solved by hand ! Using regedit for each wanted audio extension (e.g. : .abc)

1. Go to : HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ FileExts \ .abc \ UserChoice \ Progid

2. If UserChoice and/or Progid don't exist, create them

3. Progid's value must be : WMP11.AssocFile.abc (abc being the wanted audio file extension)

4. Go to : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ WMP11.AssocFile.abc (abc being the wanted audio file extension)

5. If that key doesn't exist, create it taking the other similar keys as model

6. Make sure the key contains a DefaultIcon sub-key

7. Exit regedit

8. Now use FileTypesMan to assign custom icons for each extension

Voilà ! :)

PS : I don't even use WMP, it's not even installed, but it doesn't matter at all apparently.

Brink · 20 Apr 2016

Great news Jose.

Thank you for posting back with your findings. :)