Solved COMPLETELY unassociating extensions from default Open With programs

[Ret00lhy]

Hello,

On the internet, I have found tutorials on how to unassociate a file extension from a default Open With program. You have to run RegEdit and remove the desired registry keys.
I'm following these steps correctly, but it just does not seem to work.

I have a file extension called ".pkg" (package). It orginally had no default program bound to it. I accidentily gave it WinRAR as default (and the only) Open With program. Now I want it to have no associated program again. (blank icon, without ANY default program to open it with)
When I try to delete the WinRAR registry key in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pkg\OpenWithList, WinRAR still is the default Open With program and when I click on the file, it opens with WinRAR..
They also tell me to search for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pkg\OpenWithProgids, but there is no OpenWithProgids in the .pkg folder inside HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

Could anyone help me with this? .pkg is not the only extension which I want to have blank again. (With blank I actually mean having NO default programs to open it with. Not showing up in Open With, nor the icon itself, nor when simply clicking on it.
When you click on such a "blank" file, it normally says "Cannot open the following file" and then it asks you to either search the right program on the internet or find a default program to open it with. This was the original state of the .pkg file and I'd like to have it back like this, in stead of beign bound to WinRAR.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Brink]

Hello Tho, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if using the program in OPTION TWO of the tutorial below may make it easier to unassociated your .pkg files.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/178296-file-extension-type-unassociate.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Ret00lhy]

Hello Tho, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if using the program in OPTION TWO of the tutorial below may make it easier to unassociated your .pkg files.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/178296-file-extension-type-unassociate.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Well yes, I forgot to mention that: I tried that Unassoc.exe, giving the same unresolved results.
Edit: After opening a .pkg file with WinRAR, I can use the "Remove file association" button. After that, nothing changed, except that the "Remove file assocation" button greyed out, until I open the .pkg file again by double clicking (which simply opens it with WinRAR again, like nothing has ever changed)

 

[Brink]

In that case, you can download and merge the .reg file below. Approve all prompts, and restart your computer afterwards. This will unassociated .pkg files for you.

 

[Ret00lhy]

In that case, you can download and merge the .reg file below. Approve all prompts, and restart your computer afterwards. This will unassociated .pkg files for you.

Could you explain me the steps on how to "merge" this .reg file into my device's register?
I figured it out. Just right click and then Merge.
And it worked. The .pkg is now completely unbound, as I wanted! Thank you!
But I have a few more of these unwanted associated extensions. Do I also have to download a .reg from you for these then?

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Tho.

Please go ahead and list the other file extensions, and I'll great a single .reg file that will unassociated them all.

 

[Ret00lhy]

For now I found your link here, which already contains a few of my extensions.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html

.bak, .log and .ini are already in the list, so I'll download them from there.

Could you create a .reg file containing the .fsb extension?
.fsb is an extension from FMOD Designer, used for games to hold sound files. (FMOD Sample Bank)

(By the way, if possible: Can you explain me how you create the reg files, specificly for this "resetting" purpose? So if I ever get this problem again in the future, I can do it, so you don't have to do it for me)

 

[Brink]

The only thing I could do for .fsb would be one to unassociate it since it's not a default extension included in Windows.

It's a bit to much to explain in a post for how, but if you edit the .pkg .reg file I posted above, those are the 3 registry keys that need to be deleted (if there) to unassociate a file extension. You would just substitute the file extension at the end that you want to unassociated instead.

I would strongly recommend that you create a restore point before playing in the registry though. One mistake could leave you having to reinstall Windows without a restore point to use system restore to go back to and undo the mistake.

 

[Ret00lhy]

The only thing I could do for .fsb would be one to unassociate it since it's not a default extension included in Windows.

It's a bit to much to explain in a post for how, but if you edit the .pkg .reg file I posted above, those are the 3 registry keys that need to be deleted (if there) to unassociate a file extension. You would just substitute the file extension at the end that you want to unassociated instead.

I would strongly recommend that you create a restore point before playing in the registry though. One mistake could leave you having to reinstall Windows without a restore point to use system restore to go back to and undo the mistake.

When I right click your .reg file, I see the 3 lines:

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pkg]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.pkg]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pkg]

So, you actually do the same thing if you delete these 3 .pkg 'folders' ?

On sites, they always told me to delete 1 small thing inside the FileExts\.pkg, not deleting the .pkg itself.
Same in the ClASSES_ROOT, but it was strange, because the .pkg 'folder' was empty, so I had nothing to delete.

 

[Brink]

To unassociate the .pkg file extension, you would actually be deleting the .pkg key on the left side at those 3 registry locations below.

If you wanted to unassociate a different file extension, then you would substitute .pkg in the locations below with the other file extension instead to delete.

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\[B][COLOR=red].pkg[/COLOR][/B]]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\[COLOR=red][B].pkg[/B][/COLOR]]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\[B][COLOR=red].pkg[/COLOR][/B]]

 

[Ret00lhy]

To unassociate the .pkg file extension, you would actually be deleting the .pkg key on the left side at those 3 registry locations below.

If you wanted to unassociate a different file extension, then you would substitute .pkg in the locations below with the other file extension instead to delete.

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\[B][COLOR=red].pkg[/COLOR][/B]]

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\[COLOR=red][B].pkg[/B][/COLOR]]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\[B][COLOR=red].pkg[/COLOR][/B]]

I have read about deleting those keys, but they say that it will completely wipe the .pkg extension from your device (any .pkg file). Is that true?

 

[Brink]

It will unassociate .pkg files so that they will no longer have a default program assigned to open them with.

 

[Ret00lhy]

It will unassociate .pkg files so that they will no longer have a default program assigned to open them with.

Well, ok, I'll try to delete the .fsb keys in these 3 locations.
Could you explain how I make a backup of these keys, just in case if anything goes wrong?

 

[Brink]

Sure thing. You would right click on the key, and click on Export to save it as a .reg file before deleting it. If something goes wrong, you could just double click on the exported .reg files to merge it back.

In addition, you could also create a restore point first that includes the complete registry. If something undesired happens, you could do a quick system restore to go back to that restore point.

 

[Ret00lhy]

Sorry for my late answer, I was very busy at my Summer student's work.
So, I'm trying to backup/export the 3 .fsb keys you gave as example to me, before deleting them.

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.fsb]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.fsb]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.fsb]

However, I cannot find the second key [-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.fsb]
(Nor can I find the .pkg inside SystemFileAssociations, but that is because it has already been restored to default maybe?)

What should I do if it isn't present? Just ignore it and continue deleting the 2 other keys?

 

[Brink]

Hello Thomas,

No worries. If the file extension isn't listed at each of the 3 locations, then it's already not associated with a program. You are basically just checking each location to see if an entry is there to be deleted if not already.

 

[Ret00lhy]

Ok deleting the .fsb keys worked. The .fsb extension is now completely unbound. Thank you for all your assistance during this topic, Brink.
Does taking this action require any system restart?

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. Since it's showing as not associated now, there wouldn't be any need to restart the PC.