Changing Application Type

Changing application type – Periodically the application association between applications and file can change or get lost, meaning that when you open a file it simply may not open or it could open, but with a different application that the one you wish to work with.

Although its not the end of the world to have to open any files by opening the application first and then opening the file through the application, it can be annoying if you need to open lots of files.

Rather than simply double clicking the file you have to launch the application and find the file through the application.

Why do applications lose their associations to files?

The main reason this happens is when another application is installed and it takes over and become the default application for that particular file type.

This can also happen if the application is uninstalled or the file association becomes corrupt usually giving an unknown application error.

How to resolve this
Right click on the file you wish to set the application type for

Select Open With and then select Choose Program (dont select any of the applications listed here as it will not give the option to make it the default)

Once you have selected Choose Program then high light the application you wish to use and put a tick in the box labelled – Always use the selected program to open this kind of file –

Select Ok and test.

If you want to be able to see any current application types without changing anything this can easily been seen by going into My Computer and selecting Folder Options from the Tools menu and then the File Types tab, then scroll down to the file type select it and you can see which application will open it. You can also change the application type from here, but doing it directly from the file itself is much more straight forward.

This method can be used to set the default file application association between any application and any file type

If this fails reboot your computer as this will then update the setting.

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