Solved Open with...choose default program error on Vista.

yankz23 · Jan 9, 2009

whenever i right click on a file and go to 'open with' and click on 'choose default program', i get get the following error below:

"This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Set Associations control panel."

now i am an experienced user and i am in the IT field but for the life of me i cant figure this one out. the following are some examples of file types, avi, jpeg, mpeg, txt, etc...
these files do indeed open fine with the program i have set as the default program for these files. they are also properly associated in the default programs option in vista. I sometimes for one reason or another want to open a file with a different program which is why i go to 'open with' but i dont want to have to continue to keep changing my default programs to open files.
now i have gone in the registry and manually added some of the programs to the open with context menu for some of the file extensions but i dont want to do this for all of them.
i suspect that there is some corrupt/missing dll file or reg key some where but i have yet to track it down.
everything else runs fine. vista runs great except for this 1 problem. if anyone knows a fix or even the location of the dll/reg key/file that may be corrupt then i would greatly appreciate it.
i do have backups that i can use to restore the corrupt/missing files if needed.

i am running vista 32bit w/service pack 1 and all updates as of today on vista and all of my programs.

thanks in advance for all help.

Brink · Jan 9, 2009

Hello Yankz23, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might see if doing a System Restore using a restore point dated before you got this error may help fix it for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

yankz23 · Jan 9, 2009

thanks but i did that and it didnt work. problem is with that is i didnt know how long ago this started. i didnt notice until i was testing a new program that i didnt want to make as my default program. i noticed it wasnt in the open with menu and when i went to choose default program from open with option, i got the error. out of curiousity i tried the program with other video formats and noticed same error. i got more curious and tried opening various types of files like txt, jpeg, etc... and got same errors. i did unistall that program but i dont think it was related to that since its wide spread with all file extensions for everything.

Brink · Jan 9, 2009

Yankz, by chance, do you have a security program like Comodo Firewall that has a Defense + type option that may be blocking you from opening Default Programs?

If you do, then temporarily place the Defense + in training mode while opening Default Programs to have it approved.

yankz23 · Jan 10, 2009

no, nothing like that.
i have norton anti virus corporate, spybot, windows firewall and windows defender. no 3rd party firewalls.
thanks

Brink · Jan 10, 2009

See if running a sfc /scannow command can find and fix any bad or missing system files that may be responsible for this.

If not, then other than a clean reinstall, you could try a Repair (upgrade) install to fix this.

yankz23 · Jan 10, 2009

thanks...but i ran that command twice. i can re-image but i was trying to avoid that since i hadnt done a backup with my newer installed software in a month or so. like i said, everything runs great except for this 1 thing. i wish i could find where it originates from because im confident i can fix it if i just knew where it stores that command to 'open with...default program'.

Brink · Jan 10, 2009

It's definitely a bad or missing registry entry on this. I just do not know where that one is located at though.

yankz23 · Jan 10, 2009

yeah thats what i figured but like you, i am baffled where this might reside as well.
ill just keep digging, cause now i just want to know.
thanks.

Brink · Jan 10, 2009

If I run across it, I'll be sure to post back.

yankz23 · Jan 10, 2009

thank you for taking the time to reply.

Brink · Jan 10, 2009

You're welcome. Hopefully someone will find this location to avoid a reinstall later.

yankz23 · Jan 13, 2009

PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!!!!!!!!
HOO HOO!

I would like to thank you again BRINK for your ideas on how to solve this.
The following step below is how I solved this annoying problem:

First I stumbled upon this article on Microsoft's website by changing my google search to fix the problem. I started searching google with the following:

"open with" context menu missing

That brought up the results with the first being a microsoft link:

"Open With" Command Missing from the Context Menu

Now the article didnt tell me exactly how to fix it but it gave me an idea.
It said to examine the following reg key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown\shell\openas\command

And it said to look at the following default value:

C:\%windir%\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1

After looking at this I noticed the value was different but then I noticed the article said this applies to Windows 95 and 98.
I then looked at the same key on my laptop which is also running Vista Ultimate 32bit and I noticed there were subfolders on my laptop that my desktop did not have.
It should look like the following:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown
\DefaultIcon
\+shell
\+openas
\command
\+opendlg
\command

My desktop only had the DefaultIcon folder.
Well I just copied the key from my laptop and voila...it worked.
Thank the Computer Gods. This was really bugging me. I know some people would have just re-imaged or did a fresh install but I knew it was an easy fix. I figured it was a reg key or windows dll file but i just needed to find the location that it resided in. Luckily I stumbled on that article that pointed me in the right direction. Now I feel like I accompished something.

Sorry if this is a little long but I HATE when Im looking for answers in forums and I see someone say they solved their problem but they either dont say anything at all on how they fixed it or they are so vague that they might as well said nothing at all.
I hope this helps others if they have this problem.

Thanks again BRINK! :D

Brink · Jan 13, 2009

Yankz,

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted. Thank you for sharing your results.

Shawn

Solved Open with...choose default program error on Vista.

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