How to change file associations.

How do you change which program starts when you want to open a file? For example, if I were to double-click a .jpg (common image file), Windows would open Microsoft Picture Manager to manage that file type. Since I typically edit these types of files, I would like to open Adobe Photoshop instead, so for convenience sake, I would need to associate that type of file with Photoshop, allowing me to simply double-click the file to open Photoshop. Read below to find out how to change the file association settings.

How to change a file association?
1. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer, right-click a file for which you want to change the program that opens that file type, and then use either of the following methods to change which program starts:
• Click Open With to choose the program that you want.
• Point to Open With, and then click Choose Program to choose the program that you want.

2. Notice that the Open With dialog box appears. Use one of the following methods to select the program that you want to use to open this kind of file:
• In the Programs list, click the program that you want.
• Click Browse, locate and then click the program that you want to use, and then click OK.
• Click Look for the appropriate program on the Web to browse the Internet for the program that you want.

3. Click to select the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box if it is not already selected.

4. Click OK.

Note: You cannot use this method for a file that does not have a file name extension, or for a file that has a system extension, such as exe, .com, .bat, and so on. (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307859)

Related Topics

• Opening Lotus Worksheets (.wk1) in Excel 2003 SP3
• Incorrect Profile Loading
• Outlook 2003 drops connection to Exchange in Vista