An utility to unassociate file types in Windows Vista

Copyright © 2008 Ramesh Srinivasan
Utilities , Customize

Summary

The utility discussed in this article helps you unassociate a file type quickly in your Windows Vista computer. Windows Vista does not provide a GUI option to unassociate file types. That's the reason I wrote this simple tool.

Unassociate file types

Download unassoc.zip from the Attachments section, and save to Desktop
Extract the contents to a folder and run the file unassoc.exe
Select the file type from the list
Click Remove file association (User)

The user-specific association for the chosen file type is now removed from the registry. The system will now use the global file association settings.

Screenshot

More information

Command	Description
Remove file association (User)	Removes the user-specific association (via the Open With dialog) for the chosen file type. Note that this button will remain dimmed if there is no user-specific association for the file type.
Delete file type	Deletes the file type completely from the registry. Both the user-specific and global associations for the chosen file type is removed.
Refresh list	Refreshes the list box contents.

Attachments

unassoc_1_3.zip

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34 Responses to "An utility to unassociate file types in Windows Vista"

Joe

said this on 05 Sep 2007 7:50:47 PM PDT

When you say it removes the file type from the registry, do you mean it resets it to the default, or that it makes it so Vista doesn't know what to do with the file? Editor's note: The file type association is deleted from the registry, and Vista treats it as unknown file type.

(Reply to this comment)

Wally

said this on 14 Sep 2007 12:50:30 AM PDT

I highly recommend this app and others on this site to all others who have spent countless hours and dollars browsing the apps available in certain computer books and publications, when half are Vista incompatible, and a program like this is a godsend for incredibly useful and necessary functions on Vista that unfortunately, if they can be found, you have to pay good dollar for when all you have to do here is download and it is incredibly easy to use. I can't believe it took me so long to find this site and apps, so save yourselves the time and give it a run. I really highly recommend it, and actually have noticed others apps on this site for some of the most obviously needed fixes in Vista that I could find nowhere, and I mean nowhere else after hours of browsing the web. So if you're like me, a guy who was looking for a fix to exactly this problem, only to come across some site where the admin. says he'll fix your dlls "if you.." just go here. Honestly. I'm bookmarking this site.

(Reply to this comment)

lantald

said this on 21 Sep 2007 7:18:35 AM PDT

I can't run this program! Keeps on telling me about that it can only run with administrative priviliges, which I have.......

(Reply to this comment)

an unknown user

said this on 26 Sep 2007 2:47:11 AM PDT

I can't run this program Also! Keeps telling me about administrative priviliges, which I have too like the above poster.........

(Reply to this comment)

Don

said this on 10 Oct 2007 5:26:36 AM PDT

Thank you so much! I associated shortcut files (lnk) to iexplorer.exe and it was a mess. I couldn't fix it through the Vista GUI and your program worked great.

(Reply to this comment)

mattbg

said this on 13 Oct 2007 10:55:09 AM PDT

Thanks! This was a very helpful tool, and may have saved me a possible reformat in a forthcoming moment of frustration :) Thanks again.

(Reply to this comment)

sam

said this on 18 Oct 2007 6:54:05 AM PDT

Thank you so much this has saved me hours of frustration.

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Oupoot

said this on 24 Oct 2007 3:24:55 PM PDT

Simple and effective. This program does what should have been a integrated function in Vista. Very useful.

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Helmut

said this on 31 Oct 2007 2:47:03 PM PDT

Looking for an answer I found more and more questions. The Solution of pdf-opening with windows mail I found here. Thanks a lot!!! You guys are great!

(Reply to this comment)

an unknown user

said this on 01 Nov 2007 7:26:14 AM PDT

This is really a great program. I met a problem with the .lnk files, that all those type files didn't work any more. After solving as you said, it recovered. Thanks a lot!

(Reply to this comment)

Mikko

said this on 12 Dec 2007 1:44:01 PM PDT

After 3 hours of searching the net for clue you saved the evening. Thank you wery much for this soft.

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Matt

said this on 24 Dec 2007 6:00:23 PM PDT

Hello, This program works like a charm, You just type in .*insert extension here" and you can do everything you'd want to with the extension. I really wish this could've been included in Vista as it's well worthy of a place in vista. I'll be recommending it to everyone

(Reply to this comment)

Jon

said this on 29 Dec 2007 3:04:25 PM PDT

Great little program. Luckily I found it on my first search as it saved me a lot of hassle because of 1 little misclick. I can't believe that the Vista OS won't let you manually un-associate a file type.

(Reply to this comment)

Steve

said this on 04 Jan 2008 2:52:29 PM PDT

THANKS A BILLION! It totally fixed my HTM and HTML extension problems!

(Reply to this comment)

BillyG

said this on 13 Jan 2008 1:15:07 AM PDT

God bless you and you whole family for this useful and cool little program!

(Reply to this comment)

Bob P

said this on 11 Feb 2008 10:29:58 PM PDT

Excellent. I'm not a computer guru by any stretch of the imagination, I was getting ticked because .pdf files wouldn't open from my email or other programs that were supposed to autolaunch Reader. Many thanks.

(Reply to this comment)

pippo

said this on 25 Feb 2008 3:42:29 PM PDT

wonderful

(Reply to this comment)

said this on 15 Mar 2008 5:20:26 PM PDT

Yesssssssssss! Just what I was looking for.

(Reply to this comment)

Billy

said this on 19 Mar 2008 2:07:20 PM PDT

Awesome This fixed my problem of not being able to open .doc files directly from Windows Mail!

(Reply to this comment)

said this on 19 Mar 2008 6:55:33 PM PDT

Awesome! You've saved me quite a bit of frustration with this little tool.

(Reply to this comment)

Doug

said this on 22 Mar 2008 3:01:20 PM PDT

This is a great tool. I had trouble mounting ISO files with Alocohol's software ..and my unassociating the .iso files .. I was finally able to make it work!

(Reply to this comment)

William Morris

said this on 08 Apr 2008 10:50:54 AM PDT

Good site! A clean intelligent layout. Well done.

(Reply to this comment)

C B

said this on 13 Apr 2008 10:21:24 PM PDT

The tool fixed my problem. My web browser stopped working because the xps file type had become associated by default with an application. I tried to open an xps document file, for which Vista recommended the xps viewer application. After that, Vista remembered that as the default application and the browser would no longer work (I think that the browser uses xps with xml file types). Thanks for the tool!!! Is there any way to also remove the xps viewer application from appearing in the "recommended applications" that show up in the "open with" selection in the context menu? Should I delete the xps file type entirely from the computer?

(Reply to this comment)

C B

said this on 13 Apr 2008 10:31:19 PM PDT

The tool worked great! Thanks so much!! However, Vista still remembers the program(s) that had been set as the default program. Is there a way to also remove the "recommended" programs from the "open with" selection within the context menu and also from the "opens with" section in the file properties window? Should I delete the file type (xps) from the computer entirely?

(Reply to this comment)

Pete

said this on 22 Apr 2008 2:53:03 AM PDT

Nice job on this Proggie man! XP has it built in, but I was going crazy trying to find it in vista! I guess I'm not nuts because it wasn't there to begin with. Thanks again and keep up the good work! Peace, ¨¨°°°³²ºº¤©ll[™]»PÇÖv€®kí££«[™]ll©¤ºº²³°°°¨¨

(Reply to this comment)

jujulu

said this on 22 Apr 2008 10:01:18 AM PDT

Yeeeepeeeeeeee! Thanks sew very much!

(Reply to this comment)

yhan

said this on 23 Apr 2008 12:34:33 AM PDT

very good software!

(Reply to this comment)

Jain

said this on 13 May 2008 4:29:40 AM PDT

Thanks so much for this

(Reply to this comment)

John

said this on 15 May 2008 5:36:38 PM PDT

Thanks a lot! I accidentally associated a .dll file with Sony ACID and this was very annoying. Now it is all back to normal. Thanks again.

(Reply to this comment)

Venkat

said this on 21 May 2008 10:40:24 PM PDT

Thanks for the work around

(Reply to this comment)

Roy

said this on 23 May 2008 7:29:48 AM PDT

Thanks for this cool program!!!! I finally removed the association of excel files from ms works...

(Reply to this comment)

Olive

said this on 29 May 2008 12:43:56 AM PDT

Thanks for this program

(Reply to this comment)

Sydney

said this on 22 Jun 2008 7:51:25 AM PDT

Thank you! You have definitely saved my life!

(Reply to this comment)

Gary

said this on 24 Jun 2008 7:19:35 PM PDT

After hours (not willing to admit how many) I finally found your site and this nifty utility - 3 minutes later problem solved.

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