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Friday, April 22, 2011

How to Enable / Disable “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” Option in Open With Dialog Box?

Whenever we use "Open With" option to open a file in Windows, it shows a dialog box containing a list of installed programs to choose from. There is also a checkbox "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" given at the bottom of this dialog box which is used to set the selected program permanent to open that file type. Sometimes it gets irritating when we accidentally select a program from the list and click on "OK" button. It sets the selected program as default to open that file type which adds some extra work to our life.
So here I'll tell you a simple registry trick to permanently disable this checkbox:
For Windows XP:
Method A:
1. Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown\shell\openas\command
2. In right-side pane, change value of "Default" key to as following:
%SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1 %2
NOTE: We have only appended %2 at last of default value. You can use any number from 2-9.
3. Exit registry editor and try to open "Open With" dialog box. You'll find that the checkbox is disabled now as shown in following screenshot:
Open_with_disabled_XP.jpg
Method B:
1. Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer
If the "Explorer" key is not present, create it manually.
2. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoFileAssociate and set its value to 1
3. Exit registry editor and try to open "Open With" dialog box. You'll find that the checkbox is disabled now as shown in following screenshot:
Open_with_invisible_XP.jpg
For Windows Vista, 7 or Server 2008:
Method A:
1. Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown\shell\opendlg\command
2. In right-side pane, change value of "Default" key to as following:
%SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1 %2
NOTE: We have only appended %2 at last of default value. You can use any number from 2-9.
3. Exit registry editor and try to open "Open With" dialog box. You'll find that the checkbox is disabled now as shown in following screenshot:
Open_with_disabled.jpg
Method B:
1. Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer
If the "Explorer" key is not present, create it manually.
2. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoFileAssociate and set its value to 1
3. Exit registry editor and try to open "Open With" dialog box. You'll find that the checkbox is completely removed now as shown in following screenshot:
Open_with_invisible.jpg
NOTE: As you can see, when we use Method A to disable the checkbox, the "Open With" dialog box doesnt show recommended programs list which it does when we use Method B. Also if you see the last screenshot of Windows Vista, the Method B totally remove the checkbox instead of disabling it.

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