Open With - Add Program

How to Add a Program to "Open With" in Vista and Windows 7​

   Information

When you right click on a file and click Open With, a list of registered programs are displayed in the Open With window to choose from. This will show you how to register a program so that it will be added to the Open With list.

EXAMPLE: Open With Context Menu

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EXAMPLE: Open With window

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METHOD ONE

Add to "Open With" Manually

NOTE: This will not always register the program and add it to the Open With window for next time.

1. For Vista​

A) See METHOD ONE here: How to Associate a Individual File Extension Type with a Program in Vista​

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2. For Windows 7​

A) See: How to Change the Default Program a File Type Opens with in Windows 7​

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METHOD TWO

Add to "Open With" Using a Program

NOTE: The program OpenWithAdd can be helpful in circumstances when you manually add a program and it does not get added to the Open With window. OpenWithAdd will register the program and add it to Open With a lot easier.
WRITTEN BY: Ramesh Srinivasan

1. Go to: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/openwithadd.htm​

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2. Click on the OpenWithAdd.zip download link at the link above to download the file.​

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3. Save it to your Desktop and extract the two files OpenWithAdd.exe and readme.txt.​

NOTE: OpenWithAdd.exe is stand-alone exe file and does not need to be installed. You can move this file to where you want and create a shortcut for it.​

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4. Click on OpenWithAdd.exe to open the program.​

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5. Type in the full path of the exe file of the program you want to add to Open With, or click the browse (...) button. (See screenshot below)​

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6. If you clicked browse (...), then navigate to the exe file of the program you want to add to Open With. (See screenshot below)​

A) Click on Select.​

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7. Click on Register. (See screenshot below)​

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8. It is now added. (See screenshot below)​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Associate a Individual File Extension Type With a Program in Vista
• How to Add Back and Set Windows Mail Default Associations
• How to Unassociate a File Extension Type in Vista
• How to Set Default Associations For a Program in Vista
• Restore Default Vista File Extension Type Associations
• How to Remove or Restore the Open With Context Menu Item in Windows
• How to Clean Up and Remove Programs from the "Open with" Context Menu
• How to Fix "Open with" Opening with Notepad or Error Message
• How to Add or Remove "Always use selected program" in Open with
• How to Have "Always use selected program" Always Checked or Unchecked in "Open with"

 

[Wildflower]

You rock. I've been looking for a fix for this for weeks and yours is the easiest way. Others had me playing with the registry. thanks

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Wildflower, and welcome to Vista Forums.

All credit belongs to Ramesh though for writing the program.

 

[Wildflower]

Thanks for the heads up, but I would have never found it if it wasn't for you.

 

[whs]

I use a similar facility from Free programs to open any file extension! - that works very well too. But it never hurts to have options. The nice feature I found with that one is that it will propose downloads for a suitable program in case you have none fitting on your system.
Update: This is an example of the window shown after I right click on a word file and go to "open with":

 

[Wildflower]

This "OpenWith" program looks pretty simple to use......right up my alley! Thanks! And I really appreciate the people who attach pictures to explain how to use programs. Really helps me.

 

[Geekophelia]

THANK YOU!!

I registered just so I c ould say that! I usually hafta spend a lot more time on stupid simple fixes, but your post did it for me!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Geekophelia, and welcome to Vista Forums.

 

[Klexur]

how do you remove entries added by this program?

 

[Brink]

Hello Klexur, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You can use the program in the tutorial below to remove it.

Open with - Clean Up and Remove Programs - Windows 7 Forums

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[lvsunz37]

The description for this procedure says it's for Vista & Windows 7. I'm running Win 7 Pro, 64 bit. I downloaded OpenWithAdd & tried to add a couple of .exe's. They registered OK but neither of them shows up in Context Menus under Open With. Would sure appreciate some help Thank you.

 

[Brink]

The description for this procedure says it's for Vista & Windows 7. I'm running Win 7 Pro, 64 bit. I downloaded OpenWithAdd & tried to add a couple of .exe's. They registered OK but neither of them shows up in Context Menus under Open With. Would sure appreciate some help Thank you.

Hello Lvsunz, and welcome to Vista Forums.

When you right click on the file and click on Open with and Choose default program instead, does it show here instead when you click on the expansion arrow to the right of "Other Programs" in the Open with window?

 

[lvsunz37]

Brink,
When I right click the only entry I see is Open With- there is no Browse or Choose Default Program/Other Programs. Just Open With.
I'm really confused as to why nothing else.

 

[Brink]

lvsunz,

Do you not see this?

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If not, then you might consider doing a system restore using a restore point (if available) dated when you believe it did work properly.

 

[lvsunz37]

Something similar- remember I'm running Win 7 Pro, 64 bit- may be different implementation. Left or right click, I get "Windows can't open this file", then 2 options: Select a program from a list of installed programs & Use Web to find correct program.Choose 1st option then I can select, browse,check "always use", etc.

I thought I would see Open With > sub menu choices, but I don't.

 

[Brink]

Ah, for Windows 7 issues, you should register and post about it's issues at our sister site Seven Forums.

For now, you might see if you can use the tutorial below to restore the default associations for the file extensions that you are getting this error with.

Default File Type Associations - Restore - Windows 7 Forums

 

[KXracer]

Hi Brink,

thanks for finding that Add "Open with" program! I've been having that problem for a while not knowing how to fix it. Kudos to Ramesh for creating it.

I just want to go into what happened in my situation.

After uninstalling a version of MPC-HC and installing a newer version I was unable to get it to use the "Open with" function. I right clicked on the media file(any kind) clicked "Choose Default Program...". I clicked Browse and selected the correct exe and clicked open. It went back to the "Open with" menu and did not appear in the "Recommended Programs" or "Other Programs" list. If I associated the file type, naturally I could just click on it and it would open but it would never appear in the "Open with" window.

It didn't matter if I used the installer or just unzipped.

I also tried running the 32 bit version and I was able to get it to appear in the "Open with" window. However I decided to delete it and try an older version...sure enough the same thing happened as above... I deleted the older version and put back the 32 bit version I first used the "Open with" feature with and it was back in the "Open with" window. Seems like Vista is hanging on to the first version I used the "Open with" function with.

The program ramesh created fixed the problem for me

What I would like to know is, why is this happening and who's responsible for this problem? Vista or MPC-HC?

 

[Brink]

Hello KXracer, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I'm happy to hear that it worked well for you. I'm not certain as to why this happens sometimes with programs though.