Q: When installing Irfanview, I assigned it to open almost all image files. This also changed what they’re called in the folder details view, from JPG Image to Irfanview JPG File, Bitmap Image to Irfanview BMP File etc. This means I have to keep that column 9 letters wider than I’d like, sheer wastage since I can already tell it’s an "Irfanview … File" by the little red logo attached in the name column. Where can I edit these back to display simply JPG File, etc?

Generally, this information can be edited using the Control Panel - Folder Options - File Types dialog. Because file type associations can be implemented using different ways, you may not be able to change the file type details using the File Types tab in some cases, and you’ll need to edit the registry. Here are the registry locations for the ProgIDs used by IrfanView:

And so forth… In each of the IrfanView’s ProgID locations in the registry, double-click the (default) value in the right-pane, and change the file type name there. For example, to change the JPG file type name to JPEG Image, use these steps:

1. Click Start, Run - Type Regedit.exe and press ENTER

2. Double-click the (default) value in the following key:

3. Replace the existing data, IrfanView JPG File with JPEG Image.

4. Exit the Registry Editor.

Copyright © 2008 Ramesh Srinivasan. All rights reserved.