Need advice...

I installed a program that took over and changed my file associations. After fussing with it for a while, I just uninstalled it thiking that would solve the problem...it didn't...I've tried reassigning the associations in the "folder options">"file types" box, but it didn't put them back correctly...

My question is: Does W2KPro have a setting anywhere that can be reset to put file associations back to the original default setting?

I hope this made sense....Any ideas?

As always, all help is very appreciated...OLW

 

How to Change a File Association
You may want to change the association of a file name extension from one program to another program. To change an existing file association:
In My Computer or Windows Explorer, right-click a file with the extension whose association that you want to change, and then click Open With.
In the Open With dialog box, click the program that you want to use to open the file type. Or, click Choose Program to choose the program that you want. If the program is not listed, click Other to locate your program.
Click the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file option.
I hope this helps

 

"...click Choose Program to choose the program that you want. If the program is not listed, click Other to locate your program..."

Tushkahoma, thank you for the help. I do have one more question tho...

I don't know what program to choose to set the GIF & JPEGs back to their original icons...I don't know if that made sense, or not...but all of those image and web animation files are now different. They were taken over by Fireworks (no, not the Chinese kind...Macromedia :O), and instead of the JPEG images just opening in a standard explorer window for viewing, the entire Fireworks program had to load first. Made me crazy.

I apparently missed seeing the file association options during the Fireworks installation...(sigh)...

So, I uninstalled Fireworks, and now the JPEGs & GIFs all have the little blue "e" logo on them instead of their regular icons.

I know this isn't a big thing, and they all seem to open up okay. It just annoys the heck out of me because I don't really know what to check in the "Open with" box to put things back to normal.

Any advice?
(I should probably just do a little trial & error work...right? :O)
OLW

 

choose... IExplore or Explorer...then put a tick in the Always use box ...then OK out

buck

 

buck52, I did do that, and the jpegs work fine as far as I can tell.

The thing is, they don't look the same now.

That's only a cosmetic foolishness, I know (I attached I file showing the difference, tho I'm not sure if I did the attachement proces right), but I was curious to know if there was a way to get it back to normal. (I hate to be bested by a bossy computer program)

I think what chaps my old granny butt is that the program did not have any options during the installation to choose whether to change the file associations and icons, or not.

PaintShop Pro, all the Adobes, most Macromedia programs have had such options for quite some time. It's something I've learned to watch for during installation of graphics software...

That's why I was so floored (& peeved) when Macromedia's Fireworks did such a thing. After spending a little time on the Fireworks forum, I learned that Fireworks just takes over without asking first. If I had known, I never would have installed it...(& won't install it again)

And, thank you for letting me rant (and for helping).
Sometimes it's the little stuff that makes me peevish...I'll get over it I bet... :O)

 

I had the same problem with a M$Office Image program. I never did figure it out.

I've noticed that Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop will all run from the program folder without being installed. I install all my programs into my D: partition, when I reinstalled my OS on my C: partition, those 3 progs all worked fine without a reinstall. However, Dreamweaver wanted me to type in the registration number again.

 

Howdy again OldLadyWho

your original icon must be from some other image program that use to open your JPG's and Gif's...When you have the "open with" window open scroll through it and see if you see that icon with it's program in there...If it's there select it instead of IExplore

buck

 

Ah, yes, buck52,...that's the mystery, isn't it? What program is it that generates the little icon with the red paint brush and gold picture frame?

Let me try this another way. When I have a freshly installed hard drive with a clean, brand new install of W2K...without ANY other software being installed yet (aside from drivers)...Windows always kindly provides one sample jpeg image in the "My Pictures" folder...

...that jpeg image icon is the one with the little red paint brush and gold picture frame...it's the default Windows icon...if it's double-clicked to open, it opens in an Explorer window...

Yet, when I selected IE in the "Open With" box, the icon does not return to it's original state...it now has a little blue "e" on it...

In trying to find the answer to that mystery, I've been told that it has something to do with a missing .dll...I know it's just a tiny thing, but I'm really curious about it now...I've been surprised to find that a lot of people have had to deal with this and say they would like to know, too...so, I will keep searching.

DVOM, your advice is excellent, and I will do it. I just installed a second hard drive this last weekend specifically because I knew I would be installing the Macromedia software...but, didn't think to install them there, I just intended to use it for storage and back up...I will do exactly as you said. I like the idea. Thank you...

And when I solve the disappearing icon mystery, I will definitely post it back here... :O) OLW

 

Go to add/remove programs and under microsoft internet explorer click add/remove there will be an option to repair internet explorer. I believe that will reset your icons.

Let us know.

jm100dm

 

Well, I got it back to normal.

Here's how (maybe it will help somebody else sometime):

Explorer window>
tools>
folder options>
file types

...But this time, instead of "Advanced", or "Change", I hit the "Restore" button lower down in the file types box.

It worked.

The thing is, depending on WHICH file type is selected in the window, different options are available below. For instance, when some file types were selected, the "Advanced" button was greyed out...when others were selected the "Restore" button was not there...

In other words, if there's nothing that needs restoring on your system, the "Restore" option won't be available...which is why no one else was able to tell me how to find it.

The "Open With" option didn't work at all, because there was no program to chose that would reset the default jpeg icon...

The "Repair IE" suggestion also didn't work.

However, I thank you all for your help in solving the mystery...because so many of you felt that the solution was somewhere in the "File Types" window, it made me keep looking in that direction.

So, all's well that ends well...I might even install Fireworks again and see if I can use this method to wrestle the files back away from it this time...(yes, I know, I am a glutton for punishment, but I hate to let a computer program get the best of me)

Thanks again! OLW