Changing File Type Defaults

When you think of default programs, you may also think about the programs that launch when you open a file of a given type. This has to do with which programs are associated with which file types.

You can think of file type association as a big table. In one column you have all the available file extensions that define the various file types. In the other column you have the programs that are linked to each file extension. It's a simple thing, really.

So, for example, you might have the JPG file extension (for JPEG type image files) associated with Adobe Photoshop Elements. When you double- click a JPG file in Windows Explorer, it launches Photoshop Elements and displays the clicked file.

Problems come when you don't like your current associations. Maybe you'd rather use Paint Shop Pro to edit your JPG files; that means you need to change the JPG association from Photoshop Elements to Paint Shop Pro.

By default,Windows hides the extensions when it displays filenames.To display extensions in Windows 7, open the Control Panel and select Folder Options. When the Folder Options dialog box appears, select the View tab; then, in the Advanced Settings list, uncheck the Hide Extensions for Known File Types option. Click OK when finished.

Fortunately, this another type of default setting you can have your way in Windows 7. There are two approaches you can take: Assign a variety of file types to a given program, or assign a program to a given file type. I'll show you both in next section.