changing which default program opens a file no longer works

[pintree3]

On my home computer I decided to change which player opens my mkv files. I went to Control Panel-->Default Programs-->Associate a file type or protocol with a program and when I clicked on a file type and then on 'Change Program' the hour glass went on as if it wad doing its job but then nothing happened. I tried it a 2nd time and still nothing. I rebooted and still nothing. OK off I go to my sister's PC. This time wanting to view my Nikon NEF files there I did the file association with XN view itself but it still opened it the windows default media viewer. Off I went to the Control Panel and do it from there and again the same thing. Since I had used this method to associate files before about a year ago and it worked fine I am now thinking that the Windows updates since then did something to make this no longer work. it is after all using 2 different computers and 2 different types of files which makes me think my deduction is correct. Does anyone have info regarding this and why it isn't working? and what could be done about it? Thanks

 

[Mahmood Shehab]

Dear pintree3,

you can use very simple trick to change the default programs which well work on all computers by following this steps:

1. Right click on the file. you need to change the default opening format program.
2. Select " Open with..."
3. Select the program suiting you and click on the below tick < Always use the selected program to open this kind of file >
4. click OK and all your files with the same format will be opened with.

Enjoy


I hope this is helpful for you.

Regards,
Mahmood Shehab

 

[pintree3]

thanks for the reply. Yes, that is the way I normally do it for it is the easier and quicker way but strangely enough that doesn't always work--as in it isn't permanent at times or does the same thing that the mentioned problem does--pretend to do something and then does nothing.

 

[Brink]

Hello pintree3,

You might see if using the tutorial below to restore the affected file extension's default association may allow you to be able to change it again afterwards.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[MilesAhead]

What Brink suggested reminded me of the old browser glitch. Often if you set a browser as your default browser, nothing would happen. In that case the work-around was to set a different browser as default, then set the one you really want as default after that. It seemed to work nearly 100% of the time.