how to change what app opens a file windows 10
When Microsoft introduced Windows viii back in 2012, they as well introduced a whole slew of apps that came pre-installed or that yous could purchase from the Windows Shop. These apps are more like ones you install on your smartphone or tablet than the desktop applications y'all used to install from .exe files on CDs (or downloaded from a software company's website). But y'all could all the same install the latter, making your system a hybrid of traditional programs and new apps. Windows 10 continues this hybrid model, which isn't a bad thing since it lets you choose which version of each program you prefer to piece of work with.
The trouble arises when there's a Windows x app that does the same basic office (e.grand. email, graphic design, video player etc.) as a traditional plan and decides to make its own app the default for opening and using those files.
What practise I mean by default programs?
The best example for me is Microsoft's Reader app for reading PDF files. I prefer to use Adobe Acrobat (or Adobe Reader if I'1000 on a computer where Acrobat isn't installed) to read PDFs because I'1000 more familiar with it. And while I tin can just open up Acrobat and then browse for the PDF file I want to read/piece of work on, in that location are times when I just double-click on a PDF file to open up information technology, east.g. when I get a PDF zipper in an email or from a link on a website.
When I did that before it would automatically open Acrobat, but after I installed Windows 8 and then ten, information technology opened Microsoft'south Reader app instead. That app would too open automatically when I create a PDF file from some other program like Word.
And it'due south not just Reader. Most of the defaults are set to built-in Microsoft apps instead of 3rd-party programs that y'all may prefer, eastward.g. the Border browser instead of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. And it even happens with Microsoft's own standalone programs—for case, I apply Outlook for e-mail but the default for Windows 10 is its Post app.
Ugh.
Changing the default program for specific file types
Note: The following instructions volition only work if you accept the programme installed locally on your computer. If you're using a deject-based version of a programme —including Microsoft's ain Office 365 applications— at that place doesn't seem to be any style to make those the default. Update: I've since discovered that even though I'g using Office 365 (version 2016), I practice accept a local version of the program as well, but it does crave one of the steps outlined further down this mail service to brand information technology the default.
In that location are two ways you tin change what programme opens by default for any given file type.
Click the Start button and start typing "Default".
After a few letters, "Default Programs" will announced in the search results. Click that.
The window that opens has a few of the more than pop apps listed, similar e-mail and browser, but not one for opening PDF files.
Scroll downward and click the Choose Default Apps past File Type link.
A screen will announced listing all the unlike file types and the default programs they're currently associated with.
Whorl down to the file type for which you want to modify the default programme.
Click the icon for the current default programme.
A menu will open up that lets you select from programs installed on your computer that tin open that file type.
NOTE: If the one you want isn't listed, you can scroll down and click the link to look for a new app in the Windows Store.
Now when I double-click on the PDF file in my email, Adobe Acrobat automatically launches instead of Microsoft Reader.
Woo-hoo!
But Look…
The process above has one major limitation. Sometimes the program you want isn't already listed in the dropdown carte and if it's non a Windows Store app, y'all're stuck. In that case, nosotros can go dorsum to a classic Windows tool: Control Panel.
UPDATE: Thanks to several readers for bringing this to my attention, only unfortunately it looks similar Microsoft has establish a manner to eliminate the Control Panel workaround too as ane I had explained previously using the Run command to go to the one-time File Association screen by having the relevant screens redirect to the standard Settings page. I take no idea why they're so expressionless ready confronting people choosing the programs they want equally their defaults but they keep picking off solutions 1 by one. *sigh*
Now what?
I have a few final options to endeavor that have worked for me to switch the default from Discussion 2016 (from Office 365) to Discussion 2010 and back over again. I make no guarantees they will work for other applications or fifty-fifty these ones for everybody, merely they're worth a try, at least until Microsoft decides to break them too…
Use the Open With command.
In File Explorer, right-click on a file whose default programme you desire to change. Select Open With > Choose Another App.
Check the box that says "Always employ this app to open .[file extension] files." If the plan y'all want to utilise is displayed, select it and click OK.
If the program isn't listed, scroll down and click on More Apps. If it *still* isn't listed, coil downward and click on "Await for another app on this PC".
That will open up a dialog box that will permit you drill down to observe the .exe file for the application yous want to make the default.
Notation: When the Browse dialog opens, information technology may automatically start at the Programme Files folder on your estimator. Depending on the awarding you desire, you may take to go up a level to the Program Files (x86) folder and find your .exe file under that path.
Also, some .exe files can take really weird paths that make them hard to find. For instance, hither are my paths for Word 2010 and Word 2016 respectively:
C:\Plan Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\WINWORD.EXE
C:\Programme Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE
Employ the Program Repair Part
This is what has worked for me with the two unlike versions of Give-and-take I have. I "repaired" the one I want equally the default and that seems to go far the priority of the two of them. And in one case I repaired both programs, they at present both show upward in the list of Open With apps then I can more easily switch between them again.
To get to the repair characteristic, click the Windows button and start typing "Apps & features" until it appears in the search results.
Click information technology to go to that screen, then on the right-mitt side under Related Settings, click on Programs & Features.
That will bring you to the Command Panel screen where you lot can select the program you want to brand the default. Click alter and follow the instructions to repair the program (they will be different depending on the application).
Uninstall and Reinstall the Program
This is obviously the option of last resort merely if nothing else works, information technology's worth trying to reinstall the program you want to exist the default. Originally I only had Word 16 on this computer, but when I installed Give-and-take 2010, it became the default. The Repair option in a higher place is what let me switch dorsum and forth between these two versions without having to reinstall again.
Select the program y'all want to be the default.
Having no default
Occasionally you may detect yourself with a file blazon that you don't want to associate with any default program at all just somehow gets ane assigned to information technology. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to notice a way to remove a default that has been set up. 🙁
Setting different programs for opening and editing files
A T4L reader commented below that in Windows XP (aka Microsoft'southward All-time Operating System Always) you could set different programs for opening a file vs. editing it. You tin't exercise it easily in Windows ten, just I did find one article that shows how to alter the program for the Edit menu for one awarding by editing a registry entry. I haven't tested it myself and you always have to be careful when making changes to the registry, merely if y'all need to do this, you can check information technology out to see if information technology will work for your purposes:
How to Utilize the Windows Right-Click 'Edit' to Launch Photoshop Instead of MS Paint (TekRevue, 08/07/15)
You may also exist interested in:
Windows 8.1: Change the Default Plan for Opening Files
Microsoft Products: News, Views, & How-Tos
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Source: https://techforluddites.com/windows-10-change-the-default-programs-for-opening-files/
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