Skip to main content

Change File Program Association, Icons And Context Menu Actions With Types

Windows has a utility called Default Programs that allows you to configure or change the default applications associated with specific file extensions. This feature was added to Windows XP through Service Pack 1, and comes default in later versions of Windows. While the Default Programs utility was revamped and made more useful in Windows Vista and 7, a particular feature found in Windows XP edition of the utility was taken away. That was the ability to change the default action when a file with a specific extension was double-clicked in Windows Explorer.

Types is a simple freeware utility that makes the task of changing program associations, icons and context menus a lot easier. More so because it brings back the ability to change the default action that was removed in Windows 7 and Vista.

Types integrates with Windows Explorer, adding a new ‘Edit file type’ action to the context menu. So you can simply right click on a particular file type and easily change the default program associated with it. Alternatively, you can access Types from The Control Panel.

types

Once Types is launched, you can change default program by choosing the appropriate item from the Linked Class menu. From the actions menu you can change the default behavior of the program when executed. These action appear on the context menu of files of that particular file type. For instance, the default behavior of MP3 files is to play when double clicked in explorer. You can push down the ‘Play’ action and instead make MP3 files add to a queue in Media Player.

What I liked most was the ability to force Windows explorer to show a particular file extension even though explorer is configured to hide them.

types-extension

The file extensions is displayed in the File types column while in details mode, which is different from the way explorer displays file types when the ‘hide file extension’ option is unchecked in Folder settings. When explorer is asked to display file types, it shows the full file name along with the extension in the file name column. This often causes problems when renaming files, as you have to be extra careful not to change the extension. This problem is absent in Types.

The drawback is that you have to manually edit each file extension setting in Types. Technically, this is impossible to accomplish since there are hundreds of extensions, but for all practically purposes, we only deal with a dozen or a couple of dozen different file extensions at most. So this is perfectly doable.

Types supports all Windows versions starting with XP.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record CPU and Memory Usage Over Time in Windows?

Whenever the computer is lagging or some application is taking too long to respond, we usually fire up task manager and look under the Performance tab or under Processes to check on processor utilization or the amount of free memory available. The task manager is ideal for real-time analysis of CPU and memory utilization. It even displays a short history of CPU utilization in the form of a graph. You get a small time-window, about 30 seconds or so, depending on how large the viewing area is.

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.

Diagram 101: Different Types of Diagrams and When To Use Them

Diagrams are a great way to visualize information and convey meaning. The problem is that there’s too many different types of diagrams, so it can be hard to know which ones you should use in any given situation. To help you out, we’ve created this diagram that lays out the 7 most common types of diagrams and when they’re best used: