IE6 and WinXP Pro - Automatically opens .txt files with Notepad (no File Save/Open dialog)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sue Morton
  • Start date Start date
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Sue Morton

Hello, I hope someone here can help.

I have one machine with Win2k Pro and IE6, and one machine with WinXP Pro
and IE6.

On the Win2k machine, when I visit a certain website and left-click an icon
there to cause a download of a .txt file, I get the familiar dialog box
asking to Open or Save the file. This behavior is just as I expect and is
what I want.

On the WinXP machine, however, I see the dialog box flash briefly and then
Notepad is automatically launched and opens the .txt file - the name has [1]
appended to it. E.G. if the filename is thistextfile.txt, the opened file
on WinXP machine is thistextfile[1].txt.

I don't know what this website is using to initiate the download, and it
doesn't accept a right-click, so using the shortcut menu and "save target
as" is not possible.

Clearly WinXP/IE6 and Win2k/IE6 are interpreting this request differently.
How can I stop WinXP/IE6 from automatically launching Notepad, and make it
behave like Win2k/IE6 does in this case? I have searched the microsoft.com
kb under Windows XP and under Internet Explorer, but so far cannot find out
how this is controlled.

Thanks in advance for any assistance,
 
Go to Control Panel > Folder Options > File Types. Scroll down to TXT and
highlight it. Click Advanced. Check "Confirm open after download".
 
Thank you Warren, that was it. I had already looked as far as the
'advanced' button on .txt, but had stopped there -- thinking, I don't want
to change the associated program with .txt, I just want IE to not launch
it...

Didn't know what the "confirm open after download" checkbox was for, so
didn't try it. Now I know. Thanks again.
 
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