Apps Reset and Restore Default Apps for File Types in Windows 11

Brink · Mar 19, 2023

RedLad said:
Thanks for this Brink

You're most welcome.

Terafugia · Apr 12, 2023

Thanks for the list! It has helped me quite a few times.

I wonder would you consider adding 'reg' files to the list?

Thanks in advance.

Brink · Apr 12, 2023

Terafugia said:
Thanks for the list! It has helped me quite a few times.

I wonder would you consider adding 'reg' files to the list?

Thanks in advance.

I'm glad it could help Terafugia, and welcome.

I added reg to the table, but it will be a BAT instead of REG download so it will work for it.

Raushan · Apr 26, 2023

Hello there!
Can you please add reg file for xml? Thanks, that would mean a lot :)

Brink · Apr 26, 2023

Raushan said:
Hello there!
Can you please add reg file for xml? Thanks, that would mean a lot :)

Hello Raushan, and welcome.

XML now added to the table in option two for you. I hope it helps.

hansqpeter · May 3, 2023

Could you add one for .pdf? I tried manually deleting the key, but I still have the Chrome Beta somehow set as standard and can't change it to Acrobat Reader, not even in the program itself. It just doesn't do anything if I try...

Brink · May 3, 2023

hansqpeter said:
Could you add one for .pdf? I tried manually deleting the key, but I still have the Chrome Beta somehow set as standard and can't change it to Acrobat Reader, not even in the program itself. It just doesn't do anything if I try...

Hello, and welcome.

PDF now added to the table. I hope it helps.

Were you able to use an option below to select Acrobat Reader as the default app for PDF files?

Choose Default Apps in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you different ways to set default apps used to open file and link types for your account in Windows 11. A default app is the program that Windows has assigned to open a file or link type with by default when you open it. Default apps you choose will only apply to your...

www.elevenforum.com

hansqpeter · May 4, 2023

Huh, weird. When I ran the .reg, I got this error

here. Even after a clean restart and running as admin.

I tried all the solutions in your link before, but none worked.

Then I tried something else, which seemed to have solved my problems. Maybe it was in combination with your reg, but just in case for future Googlers who might struggle with the same:

Run .bat, if it doesn't seem to work:
Download sumatra pdf
Install
Open a .pdf with it
Suddenly, my default was changed from Chrome to nothing
Next time I tried to open a .pdf, it asked me what program I want to use and setting adobe saved it now, somehow.

Thanks brink

Brink · May 4, 2023

hansqpeter said:
Huh, weird. When I ran the .reg, I got this error here. Even after a clean restart and running as admin.

I tried all the solutions in your link before, but none worked.

Then I tried something else, which seemed to have solved my problems. Maybe it was in combination with your reg, but just in case for future Googlers who might struggle with the same:

Run .bat, if it doesn't seem to work:
Download sumatra pdf
Install
Open a .pdf with it
Suddenly, my default was changed from Chrome to nothing
Next time I tried to open a .pdf, it asked me what program I want to use and setting adobe saved it now, somehow.

Thanks brink

It looks like something may have been in use causing the REG file not to fully merge. Restarting the computer and trying again may have allowed the REG to merge.

I'm glad you got it sorted out though. :party:

DudeDK · May 6, 2023

Hi.
I picked a browser as default for .shtml. Now I'm concerned if I should have left it as "choose a default" and if I have opened myself for malicious websites.
Is there a way to restore it to "choose a default" if it's a security risk or should I not worry about it?

Thank you in advance.

Brink · May 6, 2023

DudeDK said:
Hi.
I picked a browser as default for .shtml. Now I'm concerned if I should have left it as "choose a default" and if I have opened myself for malicious websites.
Is there a way to restore it to "choose a default" if it's a security risk or should I not worry about it?

Thank you in advance.

Hello Dude, and welcome.

I have added shtml to the table in option two to help. It will restore the default association for it.

DudeDK · May 6, 2023

Brink said:
Hello Dude, and welcome.

I have added shtml to the table in option two to help. It will restore the default association for it.

Hi.
That was fast. Really appreciated.Thank you very much.

Is it a security risk to have browser set for that filetype, just wondering.

Brink · May 6, 2023

DudeDK said:
Hi.
That was fast. Really appreciated.Thank you very much.

Is it a security risk to have browser set for that filetype, just wondering.

You're most welcome.

No security risk since it's only for an app to open that file type with by default.

DudeDK · May 6, 2023

Brink said:
You're most welcome.

No security risk since it's only for an app to open that file type with by default.

Ok, that's good to hear. And again, thank you so very much.

Have a great day.

Lisa48 · Jul 7, 2023

Hi, I wonder if you can help me.
I need to reset the default for .dwg files. The program orginally installed to open them was unistalled, but when I manually try to add the new program it automatically changes the "suggested" program to the name of the old version, and does not change to the new program path, like something is stopping it from changing the orginal file path. I've tried to install and uninstall the old program and the new one, but nothing works. Setting all apps to default doesn't work. I've also never restarted a computer so many times in my life.
The computer is running Windows 11 in Italian and is my bosses computer so I don't know if that changes something.

Thank you for your time!

Brink · Jul 7, 2023

Lisa48 said:
Hi, I wonder if you can help me.
I need to reset the default for .dwg files. The program orginally installed to open them was unistalled, but when I manually try to add the new program it automatically changes the "suggested" program to the name of the old version, and does not change to the new program path, like something is stopping it from changing the orginal file path. I've tried to install and uninstall the old program and the new one, but nothing works. Setting all apps to default doesn't work. I've also never restarted a computer so many times in my life.
The computer is running Windows 11 in Italian and is my bosses computer so I don't know if that changes something.

Thank you for your time!

Hello Lisa, and welcome.

I added dwg to the table in option two to hopefully fix this for you. It'll remove the user choice default app for this file type.

Lisa48 · Jul 7, 2023

Thank you so much for such a fast reply!

Brink · Jul 7, 2023

Lisa48 said:
Thank you so much for such a fast reply!

You're most welcome. Did it fix the issue for you?

Lisa48 · Jul 7, 2023

It did help to narrow down the problem! The fix (for anyone else who might come looking) ended up being: to delete the registry keys for .dwg:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dwg
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.dwg
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.dwg
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Roaming\OpenWith\FileExts\.dwg

Then running the correct AutoCAD app will reassign the default app when running for first time.

Thank you again.

PRMyx · Oct 30, 2023

Hi Shawn,

Do you have option two for resetting .mkv files? Thanks

File Type	Default App	Description
7z	File Explorer	A .7z file is an archive file format created using the 7-Zip compression tool.
acsm		Adobe Content Server Message file
ani		Cursor animation file
bat		Windows batch file
bmp	Photos	Bitmap image file
bz2	File Explorer	BZ2 files are generated using the BZIP2 open-source compression method.
cab		Cabinet file
cmd		Windows Command Script file
cur		Cursor file
dll		Application extension
dwg		CAD (computer-aided design) file
exe		Executable application file
gz	File Explorer	A .GZ file is an archive compressed using the gzip compression technology.
ico		Icon file
inf	Notepad	Setup information file
iso		Disk image file
jpg	Photos	Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) image file
jpeg	Photos	Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) image file
json		A JSON file is a file that stores simple data structures and objects in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, which is a standard data interchange format.
lnk		Shortcut
log	Notepad	Text document file that Windows writes a record of events to.
mp3	Groove Music	MP3 sound format file
mp4	Movies & TV	MPEG-4 movie file
mkv	Media Player	Matroska video file
msi	Windows Installer	Windows Installer Package
otf	Windows Font Manager	OpenType Fonts
pdf	Microsoft Edge	Portable Document Format (PDF) file.
png	Photos	Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a lossless bitmap compression method for image files.
ps1	Notepad	Windows PowerShell Script
psd		PSD files are the native file format of Adobe Photoshop.
rar	File Explorer	A .RAR file is an archive that contains one or more files compressed using the RAR compression format.
reg	Registry Editor	Registration entries
shtml		Web page written in HTML that contains server side includes; processed (or parsed) by the Web server before being sent to the users browser
tar	File Explorer	A TAR file (short for Tape Archive) is an archive format used to bundle multiple files together for easier storage and sharing.
tbz2	File Explorer	A .tbz2 file is a BZIP2-compressed TAR file.
tgz	File Explorer	A .TGZ file is a Unix TAR archive that has been compressed using Gnu Zip (GZIP) to reduce its file size.
ttf	Windows Font Viewer	TrueType Fonts
txt	Notepad	Text document file
txz	File Explorer	A .txz file is an archive created using the Tar and XZ utilities.
tzst	File Explorer	A .TZST file is a Zstandard Compressed TAR Archive.
url	Default web browser	Internet shortcut
vbs	Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (wscript.exe)	VBScript Script File
vhd	Windows Explorer	Virtual Hard Disk image file
vhdx	Windows Explorer	Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk image file
wav	Groove Music	Wave audio file
xml	Microsoft Edge	XML document
xz	File Explorer	An .xz file is an archive compressed using XZ compression, which is a high-ratio compression algorithm based on the LZMA algorithm.
zip		Compressed (zipped) folder
zst	File Explorer	A ZST file is a file compressed with the Zstandard (zstd) compression algorithm.

Apps Reset and Restore Default Apps for File Types in Windows 11

Reset All Default Apps to Microsoft Recommended App Defaults

Reset and Restore Specific File Type Associations to Default

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