How to open files with the application you want

In Windows, when you right-click on a file name or icon, a context menu pops up to give you several choices, including opening the file. If the file type is already registered, clicking on Open will open the file with a previously specified program. For instance, a file with the .TXT extension might be opened by Notepad.

But what if you’d rather open it with a better word processor? Wouldn’t you like to have a choice? As Captain Picard would say, make it so.

Open Windows Explorer and under the Edit menu, click on Options or Folder Options. In the box that appears, click on the File Types tab. Scroll down the list of file types to find Text Document, click on it and then on the Edit button. In the Edit File Types box that appears, click on New.

Now the New Action dialogue box is awaiting your instructions. In its Action space, enter the command you want to add to the context menu — such as Open with Word.

In the space for Application, enter the path to the program you want to use to open text files. You can employ the Browse button to find the exact location, if you like. For Word, the path might be C:\Programs Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe although it may differ on your computer.

Click on OK and close up all open boxes.

Now whenever you right-click on a .TXT file, you’ll get an option to "Open with Word".

This is only one example. You can experiment with opening a variety of files with various applications. In some cases, you may have to add a space and "%1" (including quotation marks) to the application path in the New Action dialogue box.