Windows XP File Types dialog and setting an Accelerator Key - Bug?
- By Ramesh Srinivasan
- Published
Unable to assign Acceleration Key for an Action
I have found what I consider to be a bug in Windows XP. It would affect almost no one, but still a bug. As an example, assume that Microsoft Word is already installed and a person installs the Microsoft Word Viewer also.
- Open Control Panel/Folder Options/File Types tab.
- Select a file extension. (Say .doc)
- Click Advanced and the Edit File Type dialog box opens.
- Select New button and the New Action dialog box opens.
- In the Action: text box, type &View (with the intent that the keyboard shortcut for this is Alt+V)
- In Application used to perform action:, type the path to wordview.exe
- Select OK to close the New Action dialog box.
- Select OK to close the Edit File Type Box.
- Select OK to close the Folder Options Box.
- In Windows Explorer, right click a .doc file. The context menu will show &View instead of View.
Does this happen to others?
--Paul
Workaround
Hi Paul, Yes! You've found a bug in the Windows XP File Types dialog. I can reproduce the problem exactly, but have a workaround for this issue.
When you type the name of the new Action (in Step 5 above), add a blank space after the action. For example, type "&View " instead of "&View" (without quotes). Or, type a multi-word string (such as "Open with Word &Viewer") in the Action text box. This circumvents the problem.
Another workaround is to edit the registry and set the file type description manually. This can be done by modifying the (default) value in the file type's ProgID, which is located here:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\<ProgID>\shell\&View]
Where <ProgID> is the actual ProgID for that file type. To better understand what ProgID is, have a look at the graphic below:
Here are some ProgID examples: txtfile, jpegfile, giffile, Wordpad.Document.1, xmlfile and so forth.
