To edit a file association, click the default app currently associated with a file type, or click the ‘Choose a default’ button for unassociated file types and select an app from the pop-up menu. You can easily edit default programs in Windows 10, either by file type or by the function (though the functions list is limited). How do i change a file association to an extension? This thread is locked. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.
Changing one file type Step 1: Right-click on a file of the type you wish to change the association for. Step 2: Select Open with from the resulting menu. Step 3: Windows will then offer you an app or a list of apps that can act as the default for. Step 4: When you’ve found the app you want.
Windows can only open one program for a particular file extension automatically, so if you like to work with your PNG files in Photoshop Elements, for example, and not Paint, changing the default file association for PNG files is required.
Follow the easy steps below to change a file type's program association in Windows.
Instructions in this article apply to Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista.
Time Required: It'll take less than five minutes to change the program that's associated with a particular file extension, no matter which Windows operating system you're using or what file type we're talking about.
Setting a program's default file association does not restrict other programs that support the file type from working with them in other situations. More on this at the bottom of the page.
How to Change File Associations in Windows 10
Windows 10 uses Settings instead of Control Panel to make changes to file type associations.
Change Edit File Association Windows 10 Software
When you're done, you can close any windows you opened to make these changes.
How to Change File Associations in Windows 8, 7, or Vista
From this point forward, when you double-click or double-tap on any file with this particular file extension, the program you chose to associate with it in Step 8 will automatically launch and load the particular file.
How to Change File Associations in Windows XP
Going forward, any time you open a file with the extension you chose back on Step 6, the program you chose in Step 8 will be opened automatically and the file will be loaded within that program.
More About Changing File Associations
Changing a program's file association doesn't mean that another supporting program can't open the file, it just means that it won't be the program that opens when you double-tap or double-click on those types of files.
To use another program with the file, you'll just need to start that other program manually first, and then browse your computer for the particular file to open it. For example, you can open Microsoft Word and use its File > Open menu to open a DOC file that is normally associated with OpenOffice Writer, but doing so doesn't actually change the file association for DOC files as explained above.
Also, changing the file association doesn't change the file type. To change the file type is to change the structure of the data so that it can be considered to exist in a different format. Changing the file's type/format is usually done with a file conversion tool.
A: Windows 10 uses file associations to determine which program will automatically open a specific file type on your computer. For example, Microsoft Photos opens .PNG files by default.
If you prefer to use another program to open PNG files, you can change the file association. You can associate a different program, like Microsoft Paint, with all files that have a '.png' extension. After you update the file association, when you double-click a PNG file, it will open in Paint rather than Photos by default.
In Windows 10, there are two methods you can use to change file associations.
Method 1: Right-click an individual file
To change the file association for a specific file type, right-click a file and select Open With → Choose another app. In the screenshot below, you can see that Microsoft Photos is associated with '.png' files.
After you select 'Choose another app,' the following 'How do you want to open this file?' dialog box appears.
This window allows you to select a default program for the selected file type. Once you have selected a program, check the box next to 'Always use this app to open .png files' and click 'OK'. In the example above, clicking OK would set Paint as the default program for all files with a '.png' extension.
NOTE: To permanently change the file association, make sure to select the option 'Always use this app to open .png files'. If you do not check this box, the file will open once in the selected program, but the file association will not be changed universally.
Method 2: Use the Settings app
This method allows you to view and modify the full list of file associations available in Windows 10. To access this list, open the Start menu (click the Windows icon) and select Settings.
This will open the Settings app, which allows you to choose settings for Devices, Accounts, Network & Internet, System, and more. Click System, which is the first option shown below.
Windows 10 Default File Association
Next, select 'Default apps' from the list of System settings and click 'Choose default apps by file type', which is near the bottom of the right pane.
The Default Apps By File Type window displays all the file types currently on your system. Next to each file type, the default program is listed, followed by a list of other programs that can open the file. To modify the default program that opens PNG images, scroll down to the PNG file type and click the icon of the current default program, as shown below.
Select the program you want to set as the default program, such as Paint. The icon of the default app will instantly change to Paint's icon and now all PNG files will automatically open in Paint when you double-click them.
Updated: February 26, 2016
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