File Extensions Help

How To Modify the Default Action for a File Type

There are different types of files on your Windows computer. The type of each file is determined by its file name extension. The files with the same file name extension are of the same type and have the same default action. The default action of a file is determined by the action that occurs when you double-click on the files.

The most common action that occurs when you double-click a file is “open”. This means that when you double-click on a file, the program associated with the file is launched, and the file is displayed in the program’s window. For example, when you double-click on a file with a “.doc” file name extension, the Microsoft Word program is launched and the contents of the file are displayed in the program’s window.

Note: When you right-click on a file, its default action is displayed in boldface at the top of the right-click menu that is displayed.

Although useful and quite convenient, default action of all files is not desirable. In fact, occasionally it can be dangerous too. For example, the default action of the Registry file with file name extension “.reg” is Merge. Selecting Merge will incorporate the information in the selected .reg file to registry, replacing the existing registry entries and values. To prevent this problem, you may want to change the default action of the .reg file from Merge to Edit. This way, if you want to merge the contents of the selected .reg file, you will have to browse down right-click menu and the chances of error will be minimized.

Steps to Change the Default Action

1. Open the Control Panel window.
2. Select the Appearance and Themes link and then select the Folder Options link to display the Folder Options dialog box.
3. Open the File Types tab.
4. In the File Types list, select the file extension whose default settings you want to change.
5. Click the Advanced button.
   
   The Edit File Type dialog box will display.
   
   
6. Select the action you want to set as default from the Action list.
7. Click the Set Default button.