filetypesIt’s been a while I wrote on this site and the reason for the same is because I was writing somewhere else and also I was planning a revamp for this site which is almost done. Today we are going to see a how to change the default program to open a file. The scenarios:

  1. The existing file association for the filetype is wrong.
  2. You have a better program which you want to make a default program.
  3. Or you uninstalled the existing program associated with a particular file type and the file doesn’t open anymore.

We’ll be seeing how to change the associated program for a particular filetype in Windows Vista and Windows XP and earlier should not have too much of difference. Following are the steps:

Note: I have used the example of opening a video file (.avi format) which currently opens with Media Player Classic but I want to open it and set default to VLC Player.

1. Right click on the file that you want to open with a different program than the one it is already associated (In my case the x-men 3 avi file).

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2. Go to open with and click choose default program.

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3. A window (Open with) will open. In most of the cases you’ll have your program already in the listed (in my case VLC Player). Else click browse and browse to the location where you installed the program.

4. To make sure that the going forward all the movie (avi files) open with VLC make sure you check the box that reads “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file”.

That’s all we have successfully changed the default program to open avi files to VLC player which earlier was Media Player classic. I am hope now you can try playing with this feature!