Windows 10: Change the Default Programs for Opening Files

Last Updated: October 8, 2018

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When Microsoft introduced Windows 8 back in 2012, they also introduced a whole slew of apps that came pre-installed or that you could purchase from the Windows Store. These apps are more like ones you 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). But you 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 you choose which version of each program you prefer to work with.

The problem arises when there’s a Windows 10 app that does the same basic function (e.g. email, graphic design, video player etc.) as a traditional program and decides to make its own app the default for opening and using those files.

What do 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’m on a computer where Acrobat isn’t installed) to read PDFs because I’m more familiar with it. And while I can just open Acrobat and then browse for the PDF file I want to read/work on, there are times when I just double-click on a PDF file to open it, e.g. when I get a PDF attachment 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 10, it opened Microsoft’s Reader app instead. That app would also open automatically when I create a PDF file from another program like Word.

And it’s not just Reader. Most of the defaults are set to built-in Microsoft apps instead of third-party programs that you may prefer, e.g. the Edge browser instead of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. And it even happens with Microsoft’s own standalone programs—for example, I use Outlook for email but the default for Windows 10 is its Mail app.

Ugh.

Changing the default program for specific file types

Note: The following instructions will only work if you have the program installed locally on your computer. If you’re using a cloud-based version of a program —including Microsoft’s own Office 365 applications— there doesn’t seem to be any way to make those the default. Update: I’ve since discovered that even though I’m using Office 365 (version 2016), I do have a local version of the program as well, but it does require one of the steps outlined further down this post to make it the default.

There are two ways you can change what program opens by default for any given file type.

Click the Start button and start typing “Default”.

After a few letters, “Default Programs” will appear in the search results. Click that.

The window that opens has a few of the more popular apps listed, like email and browser, but not one for opening PDF files.

Scroll down and click the Choose Default Apps by File Type link.

A screen will appear listing all the different file types and the default programs they’re currently associated with.

Scroll down to the file type for which you want to change the default program.

Click the icon for the current default program.

A menu will open up that lets you select from programs installed on your computer that can 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.

BUT WAIT…

The process above has one major limitation. Sometimes the program you want isn’t already listed in the dropdown menu and if it’s not a Windows Store app, you’re stuck. In that case, we can go back to a classic Windows tool: Control Panel.

Now what?

I have a few final options to try that have worked for me to switch the default from Word 2016 (from Office 365) to Word 2010 and back again. I make no guarantees they will work for other applications or even these ones for everybody, but they’re worth a try, at least until Microsoft decides to break them as well…

Use the Open With command.

In File Explorer, right-click on a file whose default program you want to change. Select Open With > Choose Another App.

Check the box that says “Always use this app to open .[file extension] files.” If the program you want to use 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, scroll down and click on “Look for another app on this PC”.

That will open a dialog box that will let you drill down to find the .exe file for the application you want to make the default.

Also, some .exe files can have really weird paths that make them hard to find. For example, here are my paths for Word 2010 and Word 2016 respectively:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\WINWORD.EXE

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE

Use the Program Repair Function

This is what has worked for me with the two different versions of Word I have. I “repaired” the one I want as the default and that seems to make it the priority of the two of them. And once I repaired both programs, they now both show up in the list of Open With apps so I can more easily switch between them again.

To get to the repair feature, click the Windows button and start typing “Apps & features” until it appears in the search results.

Click it to go to that screen, then on the right-hand side under Related Settings, click on Programs & Features.

That will bring you to the Control Panel screen where you can select the program you want to make the default. Click change 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 but if nothing else works, it’s worth trying to reinstall the program you want to be the default. Originally I only had Word 16 on this computer, but when I installed Word 2010, it became the default. The Repair option above is what let me switch back and forth between these two versions without having to reinstall again.

Select the program you want to be the default.

Having no default

Occasionally you may find yourself with a file type that you don’t want to associate with any default program at all but somehow gets one assigned to it. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find a way to remove a default that has been set. 🙁

Setting different programs for opening and editing files

A T4L reader commented below that in Windows XP (aka Microsoft’s Best Operating System Ever) you could set different programs for opening a file vs. editing it. You can’t do it easily in Windows 10, but I did find one article that shows how to change the program for the Edit menu for one application by editing a registry entry. I haven’t tested it myself and you always have to be careful when making changes to the registry, but if you need to do this, you can check it out to see if it will work for your purposes:

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How to remove Open With programs in Windows

Open With is a useful feature of the Windows operating system that allows you to open files with different programs from Explorer.

While you can map a file type such as zip to a program so that it gets opened whenever you double-click on a file of that type, you can also right-click on files and select open with to launch the file in a different program.

Windows opens an «open with» menu when you double-click on files that have no default program associated with them so that you may pick a suitable program from the list that is provided.

Sometimes, you may notice that old or unwanted programs are on the list; this happened to me the other day. I installed a new software to open archives to update a review and removed the program after I finished testing it. While the program was removed from the Windows 10 machine, the open with and «how do you want to open this» menus still listed it as one of the options. Selection did not do anything because the program was not installed anymore, and it was presented in a prominent spot on top of that.

Remove Open With programs on Windows

Windows users have two main options when it comes to dealing with unneeded items in the Open With menu or adding new items to it:

1. Manipulate listings directly in the Windows Registry.
2. Use third-party programs for that instead.

Direct manipulation has the advantage that you don’t need to run third-party software to make the changes; the disadvantage is that it is not as easy and straightforward as what some of the third-party programs that edit Open With data offer.

Using the Registry

Using the Registry to remove Open With items from Windows is relatively easy.

Note: Since you are deleting keys and values in the Registry you may want to create a backup first before you do so. Select File > Export in the Registry Editor to back up the selected key and data.

1. Open the Start Menu, type regedit.exe, and select the result to load the Registry Editor.
2. Confirm the UAC prompt that is displayed.
3. Go to the root key Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\

The key lists all known file types in alphabetical order.

1. Click on the file extension that you want to edit the open with programs for.
2. Select the «OpenWithList» key to list all available entries.

You delete any item listed on the page by right-clicking on it and selecting delete from the context menu. You are asked to confirm the deletion and need to select yes to delete the selected value from the Registry.

All that is left to do is repeat the process for any other program or file type that you want to remove items from.

The changes should be visible right away in the right-click open with menu in Explorer. A restart is not required.

Using third-party software

Several applications have been created over the years to make the editing of the Open With menu more comfortable.

OpenWithView by Nirsoft (all Windows versions)

OpenWithView is a free program for all versions of Windows that lists all applications that you may find listed under the Open With menu in Windows Explorer.

Apart from listing those apps, it allows you to disable them if you don’t need them so that they are not shown in the menu anymore from that moment on.

To disable an entry select it with the mouse and right-click afterwards. There you find the option to disable it to block it from being listed in the Open With menu. You may also use the shortcut F8 to disable entries and F7 to enable them if you prefer to use the keyboard.

OpenWithView does not offer granular controls but it lets you remove an application from any menu it may be displayed in directly.

Open With Enhanced (Windows 7 and older)

OpenWith Enhanced improves the Windows Open With dialog. Once installed, it turns the Open With dialog into a more user friendly version.

The program uses a program association database that is constantly updated to suggest applications that can be used to open the selected file in the Windows operating system.

Installed programs are displayed with different backgrounds than programs that are not installed. A click on a program that is suggested but not installed will open the program’s home page on the Internet from where it can be downloaded to the local PC.

That’s handy for users who have no idea which program they need to open a specific file type, and users who would like to try out alternatives to programs already available on the system.

The program options are displayed with a click on Settings. Here it is possible to change the application backgrounds and label colors, the way programs are displayed in the Open With dialog, the sending of anonymous usage statistics and if the program should check for updates regularly.

Another interesting option is the ability to remove file associations for users on the system, and to remove Open With menu entries in Windows Explorer to clean up the context menu of Window’s native file management tool.

Lastly, a click on «look for the appropriate program on the Web» opens the OpenWith Enhanced database on the Internet.

Open Expert (Windows XP and earlier)

Open Expert is probably the best application to configure the available applications for the Open With dialog for each file type in Windows. A list is populated with all Open With programs after selecting a file type from the list of available extensions.

Each program in the list can be rearranged in position or removed from the list completely. Alternatively new programs can be added from the hard drive. Open Expert is easy to use and the results are immediately visible.

Easily open your graphic files in your favorite paint programs or view your HTML files in either Netscape or Internet Explorer, just with a few mouse clicks. You can even add different versions of the same program to the OpenExpert menu.

The screenshot below shows how it works: Right-click your file, point to «Open with» and then just click on the program which should open the file. That’s how easy it is!

Please note that the program is only compatible with Windows XP and earlier versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. The program is free for personal use.