Make sure that your Windows programs open the right files

So common is the problem that starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft puts an item on the Start menu specifically to help with changing file associations. Windows XP users should skip to Step 8 but in Vista or 7 just click the Start button and choose Default Programs. When the window opens, look along the top at the breadcrumb trail – this shows the path Windows took to get to this particular window and notice that we’ve jumped straight into the Control Panel. It’s a nifty shortcut that saves a lot of icon-clicking.

First we’re going to change the program Windows uses to open Quicktime movie files – files with a .mov file extension. At the moment, Quicktime plays them back but we’d rather use the free VLC Player program because it’s faster and more adaptable. So, click the ‘Set your default programs’ link at the top and wait for the list to load. The program list that appears in the left-hand column may differ from that shown here depending what’s installed on the PC.

Start by clicking the VLC icon in the left-hand column. Windows displays a bit of information about the program, including the fact that VLC is currently set to open 76 out of 100 default file types. We can either let VLC open all the file types it would like or click ‘Choose defaults for this program’ so we can select one or more specific ones. Let’s do that. When the window appears it will show all 100 file types – those that VLC is currently set to open are indicated with a tick.

Scroll down the list until you can see the entry for the .mov file extension. At the moment this is configured so Quicktime Player opens it. To change that, click once in the empty box with the mouse pointer to put a tick there and then click the Save button. Here we’ve done that and then reopened the same window to show the setting’s changed from Quicktime to VLC and for good measure we’re also playing a video with VLC that would have launched and played back in Quicktime.

Click OK to return to the main Default Programs screen (Step 1) and this time choose the second item in the list – ‘Associate a file type or protocol with a program’. When the screen loads it’ll display a list of every known file type on the computer, together with the program tasked with the job of opening it. In this example, we want to change the program that opens TIFF picture files from the default – Windows Photo Viewer – to an application that’s more suited.

Click on the file type that needs changing to highlight it and then click the Change program button. The Open with dialogue box appears and Windows lists the programs it thinks you might use to open this particular type of file. If the program you want isn’t there, click the arrow button about halfway down to open the supplemental list and see if it’s listed there. In this example, the program we want to use – an image editor program called Photofiltre – is listed so we can select it and then click OK.

If the right program isn’t listed in the dialogue box, you’ll have to find it manually. Click the Browse button and use the Open with dialogue box to locate the correct program. Typically, you’ll need to open the default drive (usually drive C), double-click the Program Files folder and then look for the program’s own folder. Here we’ve done just that and navigated to the Photofiltre folder. Now we can click on the program icon to select it and then click Open. When the selected program is added to the list, click it and then click OK to ‘fix’ the association.

Using Windows XP? There’s no equivalent to the Default Programs window but it’s possible to change file associations as we did in the previous two steps. Open a folder – for example, My Documents – and then open the Tools menu and choose Folder Options. When the dialogue box opens, click the File Types tab, scroll to find the association you want to change – we’ve chosen TIFF – and select it. Click the Change button. After that, the process is the same as described in Steps 6 and 7.

Vista and Windows 7 users can control how CDs and DVDs behave from the Default Programs window. Click the Change Autoplay settings link and a whole load of options appears on the screen for CDs, movies, video files, games and more – just pick the required option from the dropdown box. In XP, open My Computer, right-click on the CD/DVD drive and choose Properties. At the dialogue box, click the AutoPlay tab and most (though not all) of the same options are there.

Vista and Windows 7 users can use the Default Programs window to change the default program used for certain activities such as web browsing and sending emails. Click the Set Program Access and Computer Defaults link. From here it’s possible to use Microsoft’s default choices such as Internet Explorer and Windows Mail, choose non-Microsoft programs (if they’re installed) such as Firefox and Thunderbird or use the Custom setting to mix and match. The same dialogue is available in XP – click Start, then choose Set Program Access and Defaults from the menu.