'Open With' -> 'Choose Program...' always uses Notepad, does not launch dialog window

[Susan Perkins]

SP-2, fully updated and patched --

For some reason, the Open With -> Choose Program... right-click command is no
longer configured correctly. On choosing Open With, some installed program
options are offered, as intended, but if none of them are what I want to use, I
then select 'Choose Program...'. This used to fire the file association dialog
window that we've all seen, showing all installed programs and asking via a
checkbox whether to always use the selected program or not to open that file
type.

I no longer get that dialog window. Instead, choosing 'Choose Program...'
simply causes Notepad to try and open the file type, seemingly no matter what
type of file it is, or how absurd it might be to have Notepad try and handle
it.

Does anyone know how I can get this behavior back to where it once was? I know
how to set file extensions. I'd just like to get this right-click behavior
back to normal.

SP

 

[Kelly]

Hi Susan,

Troubleshooting Open With in XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_o.htm#openwith

--
All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Susan Perkins]

Hi Susan,

Troubleshooting Open With in XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_o.htm#openwith

Actually, I did read through this before posting. But most of what I found
there was related to people who want to *enable* Notepad to handle everything.
I wanted to stop Notepad from interfering with the dialog box.

Nonetheless, the problem now seems solved. After reading a whole bunch of
information about this via Google, I decided to take a shot and delete a couple
of registry keys. Hey, I'm backed up anyway, so these keys are not going to
change my life.

The keys I deleted were the entire 'Notepad' tree under
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unkown\shell. The shell tree itself had a value of 'Notepad'
which obviously referred to the Notepad key below it. So I deleted the value
in the shell key and deleted the entire Notepad tree below. I left the openas
key and tree alone, as the values seemed to be set for what I wanted based on
what I read. Bingo, I get the dialog box now, and no problems I can see.

SP