Default File Type Associations - Restore

Restore Default Vista File Extension Type Associations​

   Information

This will allow you to restore the default registry entries and program associations for the Vista file extension type of your choice.

   Note

This can be helpful for example when a file extension type opens with the wrong program by default, has the wrong icon, or is missing or corrupted in the registry. Downloading the .reg file for the selected file extension in the tutorial below, will restore that file extension back to default for all of these items above.

If the file extension type you need to restore is not listed below yet, then please post a request for it. I'll be happy to add it to the list.

   Warning

Default program associations for file extensions are a per user setting by default, so you will need to be logged on to the effected user account to be able to restore the default associations of the file extension for that specific user account.

If you are logged in as a standard user and this still does not help, then have the administrator also merge the needed .reg for the file extension below while logged into their administrator account.

These default file extensions should only be used in Vista.

Here's How:

1. Click on the file extension type link listed below for the one that you wish to restore to default to download it's .zip file.

2. Save the .zip file to your desktop.

3. Open the downloaded .zip file, then extract the .reg file to the desktop.

4. Right click on the extracted .reg file and click on Merge.

   Tip

If you do not see a Merge option when you right click on the REG file, then you will need to check in Default Programs to set the reg file extension to have it's Current Default program set as Registry Editor (C:\Windows\regedit.exe). Afterwards, try merging the REG file again.

5. If prompted, click on Run, Continue (UAC), Yes, and OK.
NOTE: If you are logged in a standard user account, then you will get a Cannot import type error. Just click on OK for it. This is normal since what cannot be imported can only be done so by an administrator account instead. It will still restore the default association of the file extension though.

6. When done, you can delete the downloaded .zip and .reg files on the desktop if you like.

7. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to fully apply.


Default Vista File Extension Types:
ani - Windows animated cursor file.

aspx - A file with the ASPX file extension is an ASP.NET Source file.

AudioCD - Audio CD protocol associations.

avi - Audio Video Interleave files. The default program is Windows Media Player.

bat - Batch files.

bmp - Bitmap image files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.

cab - Cabinet files.

chm - Microsoft compiled HTML help files.

cmd - Windows command script files.

com - MS-DOS application files.

contact - Contact file used in Windows Mail. The default program is Windows Contacts.

css - Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file used to format the contents of a Web page; contains customized, global properties for how to display HTML elements; can define the size, color, font, line spacing, indentation, borders, and location of HTML elements.

cur - Windows File Cursor animation files used for the Microsoft Windows mouse pointer image.

dat - Generic data file created by a specific application; typically accessed only by the application that created the file; may contain data in text or binary format; text-based DAT files can be viewed in a text editor.

Directory - Directory protocol associations

dll - A Dynamic Link Library (dll) file is a support file used by one or more programs.

drive - Drive protocol associations.

exe - Executable application files.

folder - Folder protocol associations.

gif - GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image files. The default program is Internet Explorer.

hlp - Help File

htm - HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) document files. The default program is Internet Explorer.

html - HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) document files. The default program is Internet Explorer.

ico - Icon files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.

inf - Setup information files. The default program is Notepad.

jpe - JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.

jpeg - JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.

jpg - JPG (Joint Photographic Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.

js - Java Script files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe).

lnk - Shortcut link (LNK) files.

manifest - A XML file that contains information about accompanying files in the same archive.

mp3 - MP3 sound format file. The default program is Windows Media Player.

mp4 - MPEG-4 movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player.

mpa - MPEG audio file. The default program is Windows Media Player.

mpe - MPEG movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player.

mpeg - MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) video file. The default program is Windows Media Player.

mpg - MPEG video file. The default program is Windows Media Player.

msc - Mirosoft Common Console document files.

msi - Microsoft Windows Installer installation package file.

pdf - Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems. By default, Vista does not support reading this file type. Using this to restore the default PDF association in Vista will remove all associations for the pdf file extension. You will need to install a 3rd party program like Adobe Reader to be able to open and read pdf files in Vista.

pif - Short for Program InFormation file, a type of file that holds information about how Windows should run a non-Windows application.

png - Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmap compression method for image files. PNG supports 16.7 million colors, it is lossless and also supports index color, grayscale, true color, transparency, and is streamable. It is thus the best compression method (better than GIF or JPEG) for use on the web

reg - Registry files.
NOTE: You may need to the default program as Registry Editor (C:\Windows\regedit.exe), or enable regedit before you will be able to use this REG file.

rtf - Rich Text document files. The default program is WordPad.

scr - Screen Saver files.

tif - Tagged Image files Format. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.

tiff - Tagged Image files Format. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.

tmp - Temp file. By default, this file extension does not have a program associated with it.

txt - Text document files. The default program is Notepad.

url - Internet website shortcut link. The default program is Internet Explorer.

vbs - Visual Basic Script files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe).

wav - Wave audio file.

wma - Windows Media Audio files. The default program is Windows Media Player.

wmv - Windows Media Audio/Video file. The default program is Windows Media Player.

wsf - Windows Script Files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe).

xml - Excel Macro files. The default program is Internet Explorer.

xps - XML Paper Specification document files. The default program is XPS Viewer (C:\Windows\System32\XPSViewer\XPSViewer.exe).

xsl - A eXtensible Stylesheet Language file that defines the style of text, tables, and other objects within a XML document; similar to a .CSS file used by .HTML documents. The default program is Internet Explorer.

zip - ZIP file extensions is a archival and data compression format used to compress one or more files to reduce the size of the file. The default program is Compressed Folders.
NOTE: This is a .reg file for the ZIP download only, so go to step 4 after downloading it.

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Associate a Individual File Extension Type With a Program in Vista
• How to Set Default Associations For a Program in Vista
• How to Unassociate a File Extension Type in Vista
• How to Show and Change a File Name Extension in Vista
• How to Add a Program to Open With in Vista
• How to Change a File Extension Type Icon in Vista
• How to Restore the Built-in ZIP File Support in Vista
• How to Turn Compressed Folders On or Off in Vista

 

[prazetyo]

Cam I request for Office file association? because I accidentally change all file extension become .DOC.
please...

thank you

 

[Brink]

Hello Prazetyo, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I couldn't include a default one for DOC since Vista does not have a default for it. It really depends on what version of Office or other program that you install for what the default would be for a DOC file, and that was to unspecific.

What version of Office do you have installed? I may be able to create one for you for that one.

 

[prazetyo]

oh, so different for each version. My office version is 2007. Thank you

 

[Brink]

Yeah, each one is different.

Is that Office 2007 standard, pro, pro plus, ultimate, etc.......?

 

[prazetyo]

I think 2007 Professional.

 

[Brink]

Ok Prazetyo. You would just need to download and merge the REG file below, then restart the computer. It will restore the default DOC associations for Office 2007 Pro. Hopefully it will do the trick for you.

 

[prazetyo]

Thank you Brink. I will try this at home, and I will confirm here is it success or not.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Prazetyo. I hope it will.

 

[prazetyo]

Brink, I already try this at home, but all my fil still have doc extension. After I browsing how to find my office 2007 version, I found that my office 2007 version is Enterprise. Is it different from Professional ? and then, how with previous reg file that I already merge ?

Thank you.

 

[Ardneh]

prazetyo,

If you accidentally changed your file extensions to .DOC, you probably
need to change the extensions back to the correct extension by renaming.

Either by Right-click > Rename, or using a renaming application.

 

[prazetyo]

You're welcome Prazetyo. I hope it will.

Brink, can I request reg file for Office 2007 Enterprise edition? Thank you

 

[schwed]

Hello,
I have a problem and it seems that this tutorial could solve it, but I am confused. I am running a Windows 7 system and I found the link to this tutorial in the Windows 7 forum. So can I use this tutorial to repair the registry of an Windows 7 System (especially for .exe files) ?

Thank you very much
Michael

 

[Brink]

Hello Michael, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yes, you could download and merge the exe option in the Windows 7 tutorial version below to restore the default associations of exe files to repair them on your computer.

Default File Type Associations - Restore - Windows 7 Forums

 

[schwed]

Thanks a lot,

I was a little unsure because of the warning:

These default file extensions should only be used in Vista.

at the top of the tutorial.

 

[Brink]

Sorry, you should use the Windows 7 tutorial version of it below instead. The Vista version would work just as well, but you would get an error message (that you can ignore) using it since some of the registry values would not be allowed to be changed in Windows 7 where they are in Vista. That's all.

Default File Type Associations - Restore - Windows 7 Forums

 

[schwed]

Thank you very much

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

 

[leetla]

I need this for .pub files.

My .pub files are trying to open in adobe reader...unsuccessfully of course.

 

[Brink]

Hello Leetla, and welcome to Vista Forums.

This is going to depend on what version of MS Office Publisher you have installed since Vista does not support opening .pub files by default. Please post back to let me know, and I'll be happy to create a REG file to restore .pub to be opened by that version of Publisher again for you.

 

[leetla]

sorry about that...

Windows Vista home premium 32 bit
MS Publisher 2007