Does the Default Program for Files on One Pc Affect Reading Those Files to Other Computers
When Microsoft introduced Windows eight back in 2012, they besides introduced a whole slew of apps that came pre-installed or that y'all could purchase from the Windows Store. These apps are more than like ones you lot install on your smartphone or tablet than the desktop applications you used to install from .exe files on CDs (or downloaded from a software company's website). Merely y'all could still 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 yous choose which version of each program you prefer to work with.
The problem arises when there'south a Windows 10 app that does the same bones function (east.g. email, graphic blueprint, video role player etc.) as a traditional plan and decides to make its own app the default for opening and using those files.
What exercise I mean by default programs?
The best example for me is Microsoft's Reader app for reading PDF files. I adopt to use Adobe Acrobat (or Adobe Reader if I'yard on a computer where Acrobat isn't installed) to read PDFs because I'm more familiar with it. And while I can merely open Acrobat and and then browse for the PDF file I want to read/piece of work on, there are times when I but double-click on a PDF file to open up it, e.m. when I get a PDF attachment in an e-mail or from a link on a website.
When I did that earlier it would automatically open Acrobat, just after I installed Windows 8 then 10, it opened Microsoft'due south Reader app instead. That app would also open automatically when I create a PDF file from some other plan like Word.
And information technology'due south not only Reader. Virtually of the defaults are set to congenital-in Microsoft apps instead of third-party programs that you may adopt, e.g. the Edge browser instead of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. And it fifty-fifty happens with Microsoft'southward own standalone programs—for example, I use Outlook for email but the default for Windows 10 is its Mail app.
Ugh.
Irresolute the default program for specific file types
Notation: The following instructions will simply work if y'all have the program installed locally on your estimator. If y'all're using a cloud-based version of a program —including Microsoft's own Role 365 applications— there doesn't seem to be whatsoever way to make those the default. Update: I've since discovered that even though I'm using Function 365 (version 2016), I do have a local version of the program also, but it does crave ane of the steps outlined further down this mail to get in the default.
There are two ways you can change what programme opens past default for any given file type.
Click the Offset push and start typing "Default".
After a few messages, "Default Programs" will appear in the search results. Click that.
The window that opens has a few of the more popular apps listed, like electronic mail and browser, merely not ane for opening PDF files.
Scroll down and click the Choose Default Apps past File Blazon link.
A screen will appear list all the dissimilar file types and the default programs they're currently associated with.
Gyre downwards to the file blazon for which you lot want to change the default program.
Click the icon for the electric current default programme.
A menu will open upwardly that lets you lot select from programs installed on your reckoner that can open that file type.
NOTE: If the 1 you desire isn't listed, y'all tin whorl down and click the link to expect for a new app in the Windows Store.
At present when I double-click on the PDF file in my electronic mail, Adobe Acrobat automatically launches instead of Microsoft Reader.
Woo-hoo!
Just WAIT…
The process to a higher place has one major limitation. Sometimes the program y'all want isn't already listed in the dropdown menu and if it'south not a Windows Shop app, yous're stuck. In that case, nosotros can go back to a archetype Windows tool: Command Panel.
UPDATE: Thanks to several readers for bringing this to my attending, but unfortunately information technology looks like Microsoft has plant a mode to eliminate the Control Panel workaround as well every bit one I had explained previously using the Run command to get to the onetime File Association screen by having the relevant screens redirect to the standard Settings folio. I have no idea why they're then expressionless set up against people choosing the programs they desire every bit their defaults only they keep picking off solutions one by 1. *sigh*
Now what?
I have a few concluding options to try that have worked for me to switch the default from Word 2022 (from Office 365) to Word 2010 and back again. I brand no guarantees they will work for other applications or even these ones for everybody, merely they're worth a attempt, at least until Microsoft decides to break them likewise…
Apply the Open With command.
In File Explorer, right-click on a file whose default program you lot want to change. Select Open With > Choose Some other App.
Check the box that says "Ever use this app to open .[file extension] files." If the program you lot want to use is displayed, select it and click OK.
If the plan isn't listed, ringlet down and click on More Apps. If information technology *still* isn't listed, whorl down and click on "Wait for another app on this PC".
That will open a dialog box that will allow you lot drill down to find the .exe file for the application you want to brand the default.
NOTE: When the Scan dialog opens, it may automatically start at the Program Files folder on your computer. Depending on the application you want, y'all may have to go upward a level to the Program Files (x86) binder and find your .exe file under that path.
Also, some .exe files tin can have really weird paths that brand them hard to find. For example, here are my paths for Word 2010 and Word 2022 respectively:
C:\Programme Files\Microsoft Role\Office14\WINWORD.EXE
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE
Use the Program Repair Office
This is what has worked for me with the ii different versions of Word I have. I "repaired" the 1 I desire as the default and that seems to make information technology the priority of the two of them. And in one case I repaired both programs, they now both testify up in the list of Open With apps so I tin more easily switch betwixt them once more.
To get to the repair feature, click the Windows button and get-go typing "Apps & features" until it appears in the search results.
Click information technology to get to that screen, then on the right-hand side under Related Settings, click on Programs & Features.
That will bring you lot to the Command Panel screen where you lot can select the program you want to make the default. Click change and follow the instructions to repair the plan (they will be different depending on the awarding).
Uninstall and Reinstall the Program
This is obviously the pick of last resort simply if nothing else works, it'south worth trying to reinstall the programme you want to be the default. Originally I only had Word 16 on this computer, only when I installed Give-and-take 2010, information technology became the default. The Repair option above is what allow me switch back and forth between these two versions without having to reinstall once again.
Select the programme you lot want to be the default.
Having no default
Occasionally y'all may find yourself with a file type that you don't desire to associate with whatever default programme at all just somehow gets i assigned to information technology. Unfortunately, I have not withal been able to notice a manner to remove a default that has been set. 🙁
Setting different programs for opening and editing files
A T4L reader commented beneath that in Windows XP (aka Microsoft'south Best Operating Organization Ever) you could prepare different programs for opening a file vs. editing it. You can't practice it easily in Windows 10, but I did find i article that shows how to change the program for the Edit menu for one application past editing a registry entry. I haven't tested it myself and you ever have to be careful when making changes to the registry, but if yous demand to practice this, yous can cheque it out to run across if it volition work for your purposes:
How to Use the Windows Right-Click 'Edit' to Launch Photoshop Instead of MS Paint (TekRevue, 08/07/15)
Yous may as well exist interested in:
Windows 8.i: Modify the Default Program 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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