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

 

[AndyTampa]

Hello Andy,

Just a few questions.

Did you restart the computer after merging the .reg file for each affected file type?

Yes

Were you logged in to an administrator account when you merged the .reg file(s)?

No

Do your .jpg images actually open in "Windows Photo Gallery", and is just what is showing for the file type?

Yes

On an interesting note. I had not found any entries for Nero when using Regedit to search. I just used Registrar Registry Manager and found almost 900 Keys, Values, and Data that contain the character string Nero. Most of them are in the HKUsers key. I just re-did the search for Photosnap and found 7 data matches.

It's not obvious what is there since the data appears to be in hexadecimal. The 7 keys are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\AppCompatCache\\AppCompatCache
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Control\Session Manager\AppCompatCache\\AppCompatCache
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet004\Control\Session Manager\AppCompatCache\\AppCompatCache
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\AppCompatCache\\AppCompatCache
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2249073173-3754490659-3260948891-1000\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\CIDSizeMRU\\0
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2249073173-3754490659-3260948891-500\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\CIDSizeMRU\\0
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2249073173-3754490659-3260948891-500\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComDlg32\CIDSizeMRU\\0

I think Nero makes a clean up tool. Should I run that, if I can find it, from both my user account and the administrator account?

 

[Brink]

Log in to an administrator account and merge the .reg file. There are keys that the .reg file restore back to default that require administrator rights.

 

[AndyTampa]

I did as you asked but the problem remains. I also found a Nero Clean tool on my Administrator desktop that I ran and it didn't find any Nero products or "no products selected" (there is no option to select).

Should I try finding Nero 8 and installing it, then uninstalling it? I'm tempted to just delete the Nero entries directly but some of them aren't clear what else they might be used for.

 

[Brink]

If other accounts are not affected by this, you could also create a new user account to use instead. Afterwards, delete the old account once you have copied over anything you wanted from it to the new account.

 

[AndyTampa]

If other accounts are not affected by this, you could also create a new user account to use instead. Afterwards, delete the old account once you have copied over anything you wanted from it to the new account.

Administrator, my account, and a guest account are all I have. The guest account is turned off. I have to check if this happens in the administrator account. I hope you have another option though. From what I've seen, there are dozens of programs installed in my user account that are not installed in the administrator account. Unless I'm mistaken about transferring information, it would take me months to get everything reinstalled in a new account.

 

[Brink]

That's ok. Programs installed on the PC are for all users. Other users would just need to create a shortcut for the program if there's not already one in their Start menu.

However, the settings and data for the programs are saved per account, and not for all users.

 

[AndyTampa]

Dude, this is just the desktop. Most of those programs installed didn't put a shortcut in the admin account. Going back and forth to try and get everything sorted again would be too much.



I reinstalled Nero 8 in the administrator account and then removed it with Nero's own clean tool. I then did a search for remaining Nero and Photosnap entries and found several. I deleted most of them manually, but still the problem remains. This Photosnap Viewer entry must be buried in the data written in hexadecimal. I don't want to delete entire values if that will damage other programs. There are only 5 entries left in the registry that contain "photosnap". Four of those keys end in AppCompatCache.

I almost forgot. The Administrator account is not showing the Save As "Nero PhotoSnapViewer" problem. It shows (*.jpg), and that's all.

EDIT: What I don't understand is how that text is in the Save As Type dialog when it isn't anywhere in the registry. Where does that dialog get the text to put there?

EDIT2: Damn! On a whim I tried in different browsers and found I only have the problem in Firefox.

EDIT3: FIXED! I had to edit the mimeTypes.rdf file in my Firefox profile. Deleting the file didn't work as it was rebuilt with the same problem.

 

[FU2K]

Hi i would like request file type that's not listed, being .mdmp as i mistakenly set its default association with notepad to open it.

If you could help me i would greatly appreciate it, thank-you.

 

[Brink]

Hello FU2K, and welcome to Vista Forums.

If you like, you can download and merge the .reg file below to unassociated .mdmp files again.

View attachment Unassociate_mdmp.reg

 

[FU2K]

Hello FU2K, and welcome to Vista Forums.

If you like, you can download and merge the .reg file below to unassociated .mdmp files again.

View attachment 29383

Hi Brink and thank-you for your swift reply i appreciate this help, first of all please i must admit that i don't fully understand what mean by or should i say how to merge this d/l to un-associate the .mdmp file type so i have gone and d/l'd the d/l you provided for me would you mind explaining the process from there on thanks Brink.

 

[FU2K]

Hi Brink and thank-you for your swift reply i appreciate this help, first of all please i must admit that i don't fully understand what mean by or should i say how to merge this d/l to un-associate the .mdmp file type so i have gone and d/l'd the d/l you provided for me would you mind explaining the process from there on thanks Brink.

Update i see how simple it was now to use the download much appreciated i just ran it and agreed to its installment thanks again Brink! :-)

 

[FU2K]

Update to my previous post in question as to how do i proceed with the d/l ,well i worked it out it was straight forward all i needed to do was open it up and agree to the changes so thank-you so much Brink for your help cheers mate!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

 

[FU2K]

You're most welcome.

Hi Brink, i have again mistakenly changed a file type association for the file type "BCD.LOG1" that was the file name and type and i changed it to open with notepad mistakenly as its default and my guess is that the default was originally "Windows Shell Common" could you please help me again Brink with this one thanks in advance!

 

[Brink]

Hello Alec,

If you like, you can download and merge the .reg file below to unassociate .LOG1 file types to restore them back to default.

View attachment Unassociate_LOG1.reg

 

[FU2K]

Hello Alec,

If you like, you can download and merge the .reg file below to unassociate .LOG1 file types to restore them back to default.

View attachment 29505

Hey thank's again Brink that worked only thing was the icon still has the notepad look but im guessing that doesn't mean it never worked as its properties information lists that it opens with the windows shell common would i be correct in saying this?

Thanks Brink!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

If you haven't already, you might see if restarting the computer will sort the icon for you.

Actually, if it's unassociated, it shouldn't have anything listed as its default program.

 

[FU2K]

You're most welcome.

If you haven't already, you might see if restarting the computer will sort the icon for you.

Actually, if it's unassociated, it shouldn't have anything listed as its default program.

Here's the screens showing the related file and its properties' Brink

 

[FU2K]

You're most welcome.

If you haven't already, you might see if restarting the computer will sort the icon for you.

Actually, if it's unassociated, it shouldn't have anything listed as its default program.

oh and that's without a restart i will re start now and check?

 

[Brink]

Thanks Brink....

I'm glad it could help, and welcome to Vista Forums.