File associations don't show up on context menu - XP Home

[Lester Horwinkle]

I like to add "extra" file associations to the registry for certain files.
This has never been a problem with Win 95/98/NT/2000. But with XP Home, it
seems that if you have too many associations, some of them stop showing up
in the right-click context menu.

I don't know why, and I want to fix this.

It seems that there is a registry key called:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts

For each file that you open, it seems that explorer collects a list of the
file suffix and the program you opened it with, and puts that information
into the above-mentioned registry key.

Specifically, there's a sub-key for each extension. And under that, there's
a sub-key called OpenWithList and another called OpenWithProgids. (Rather
than describe this further, please just take a look at your own registry.)

If I delete these, the missing extra file associations reappear. So I built
a small VB script program to perform that removal.

Still, it's a pain to have to do this. I wonder if there's another registry
entry (presumably, a Windows Explorer option) that puts an end to this
crappy behavior???

 

[Sharon F]

I like to add "extra" file associations to the registry for certain files.
This has never been a problem with Win 95/98/NT/2000. But with XP Home, it
seems that if you have too many associations, some of them stop showing up
in the right-click context menu.

I don't know why, and I want to fix this.

It seems that there is a registry key called:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts

For each file that you open, it seems that explorer collects a list of the
file suffix and the program you opened it with, and puts that information
into the above-mentioned registry key.

Specifically, there's a sub-key for each extension. And under that, there's
a sub-key called OpenWithList and another called OpenWithProgids. (Rather
than describe this further, please just take a look at your own registry.)

If I delete these, the missing extra file associations reappear. So I built
a small VB script program to perform that removal.

Still, it's a pain to have to do this. I wonder if there's another registry
entry (presumably, a Windows Explorer option) that puts an end to this
crappy behavior???

I run "good old" Cardfile from Win3.x on this XP system. To establish the
association, I right clicked the file, selected Open With. On the next
screen that appeared, I selected the option to choose the program
instead of letting Windows search. After that was done, I used Folder
Options> File Types and edited the new CRD association to assign the
cardfile icon. The registry entries were created automatically and the
association stays in place.