Change a file Extension Detail (*.doc) in Vista

[Sharaph]

OS: Vista Ultimate


In My_Documents folder: Under the file type I get this very long text"
Microsoft Office Word Document" for my Word documents and the same
"Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet" for Excel spreadsheets.

Now I want to cut down the text details,

say: " MS " instead of " Microsoft "

and just " Word " instead of " Word Document "

- How to do that?

- What are registry keys to be changed?



My folder is getting crowded and I need to undersize available space
to show other columns.

Thanks,,,

 

[Andrew McLaren]

In My_Documents folder: Under the file type I get this very long text"

Microsoft Office Word Document" for my Word documents and the same
"Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet" for Excel spreadsheets.

Now I want to cut down the text details,
say: " MS " instead of " Microsoft "
and just " Word " instead of " Word Document "
- How to do that?
- What are registry keys to be changed?
My folder is getting crowded and I need to undersize available space
to show other columns.

Hi Sharaph,

Run Regedit as Administrator. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12

The (default) value is "Microsoft Office Word Document". Change this to "MS
Word Document". Then go and refresh the view in Explorer (eg hit F5). You
should see the new value displayed in the Type column.

The Word 97-2003 string is under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8.

Unfortunately, these strings are scattered around various places in the
Registry, but you can hunt down and change the main ones pretty easily.
Excel 2007 is under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12, and so on.

I once asked a Microsoft product manager why they insisted on using these
ridiculously verbose file type descriptions, such that users often only see
a column of truncated "Microsoft Off"; instead of actually useful file type
information. As I understood the answer, there were 2 factors ... Office
marketing guys were not willing to give up the "Office" branding; and there
was some weird legal requirement to put in "Microsoft" at the front, all
tied up with the DOJ settlement etc. So we get a useless "Microsoft Office
Word Document" instead of helpful, descriptive "Word Document".

Anyway, hope this helps!

 

[SM]

Hi Sharaph,

Run Regedit as Administrator. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12

The (default) value is "Microsoft Office Word Document". Change this to "MS
Word Document". Then go and refresh the view in Explorer (eg hit F5). You
should see the new value displayed in the Type column.

The Word 97-2003 string is under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.8.

Unfortunately, these strings are scattered around various places in the
Registry, but you can hunt down and change the main ones pretty easily.
Excel 2007 is under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12, and so on.

I once asked a Microsoft product manager why they insisted on using these
ridiculously verbose file type descriptions, such that users often only see
a column of truncated "Microsoft Off"; instead of actually useful file type
information. As I understood the answer, there were 2 factors ... Office
marketing guys were not willing to give up the "Office" branding; and there
was some weird legal requirement to put in "Microsoft" at the front, all
tied up with the DOJ settlement etc. So we get a useless "Microsoft Office
Word Document" instead of helpful, descriptive "Word Document".

Anyway, hope this helps!

Mr. McLaren, Thank You... it is very helpful, I also used the same to
amend the remaining MS appliction eg PowerPoint & Access.