The billionth comp-help thread. Default programs.

[Anuan]

Specifically, a main laptop in the house refuses to change its default programs. It's failed on multiple instances with multiple programs. Problem at the moment is making WinRar the default for opening up zip files and such, because having to open up WinRar and then go through and find everything again is kinda tedious compared to a doubleclick on the zipfile.

But yeah, in general it won't allow us to set defaults that we want, or open-with with what we want. We can add random programs, but not what we actually want to open it with. Any ideas?

[Warlawk]

I'm no computer guru, but it sounds to me like you might be on a standard user account login that does not have permission to change defaults. If there is a separate administrator account that you need to log in to, you may need to do so to change things like that.

[Douglas]

But yeah, in general it won't allow us to set defaults that we want, or open-with with what we want. We can add random programs, but not what we actually want to open it with. Any ideas?
Do I understand correctly that you can, in fact, change what it opens with, but what you want to use isn't on the list to choose from? If so, look for a Browse button on the window that has the list. You'll have to use that and manually tell it exactly where to find WinRar. If you don't know where that is, you can find out by right-clicking your WinRar shortcut and selecting Open File Location.

[factotum]

If, on the other hand, you mean you can change your file associations but they change themselves back of their own accord, that sounds more like a virus.

[Anuan]

Do I understand correctly that you can, in fact, change what it opens with, but what you want to use isn't on the list to choose from? If so, look for a Browse button on the window that has the list. You'll have to use that and manually tell it exactly where to find WinRar. If you don't know where that is, you can find out by right-clicking your WinRar shortcut and selecting Open File Location.

It's less like this...


If, on the other hand, you mean you can change your file associations but they change themselves back of their own accord, that sounds more like a virus.

And a little more like this. Not quite though. It's more like...well, let's continue to use winrar as an example. We'll rightclick, go 'choose default program' and then go and find winrar to add to the list of availables and make it the default. It won't add, but nearly anything else will.