File Association Fixes for Windows 7 and Windows Vista

This page contains the file association fixes for some of the common file types. These fixes are applicable for Windows® 7 and Windows® Vista systems only.

File association fixes for Windows 7

AVI IMG SCR
BAT INF TIF/TIFF
BMP JPE/JPEG/JPG TXT
CHM JS VBS
CMD LNK WMA
COM MP3 WMV
EXE MPE/MPEG/MPG XML
GIF MSC ZIP
HTM/HTML PNG
ICO REG
Directory Drive Folder

File association fixes for Windows Vista

How to use the .reg file?

To fix the association for a particular file type:

  • Download the corresponding fix from the above table. Use Right-click – Save as option in your browser to download the file.
  • Unzip the file and extract the .reg file to Desktop.
  • Right-click on the .reg file and choose Merge. Alternately, you can open the Registry Editor and then using the Import option from the File menu, to apply the contents.

Note that you need to be an administrator to apply these fixes.

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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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76 thoughts on “File Association Fixes for Windows 7 and Windows Vista”

  1. The XML repair needs another line (if you are recovering from an Adobe Dreamweaver hijack):

    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\xmlfile\shell\open\command]
    @=”\”C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Microsoft Shared\\OFFICE14\\MSOXMLED.EXE\” /verb open \”%1\””

    But thanks so much for this resource – You got me in the right place!!

  2. Dude you are the only life saver on the whole web…. thanks… VLC media player issue of oppening lnk or exe files solved.

  3. click the link REG in the top right corner, extract and place a copy on your desktop then -> right click -> merge. This fixed google chrome tabbed browsing switching and also the double click on folders issue (don’t have to log out/log in anymore)

  4. Lord I must be so stupid, I read these instructions quite a few times yesterday and couldn’t get the fix, however, I re-read them again today about 6 more times and managed to get the fix……thank you Window 7 online help 🙂

  5. Thank you..I have been trying to find a solution to my problem of “not opening folders on double click”..Tried many option in the last 1 year or so, till I found this page. And in 30 seconds my problem was solved…Thank you so much again…

  7. I tried for two hours to fix the problem and nothing was successful until I found the information on this website. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!!!!!!

  8. i’m not sure how it worked, but it worked! my exe files and programs were unusable because they would only open in windows media center. it took a couple of tries merging the fixes, but suddenly everything was changed back. not sure what i did in the first place to cause the switch to WMC as the default program, but i’m so glad it’s fixed…

  9. Awesome, can’t thank you enough. It worked on the very first try, ofcourse after following all your instructions. GOD bless you!

  10. Yeah! Thanx, I had a problem with exe files, cause none of them wouldn’t open. I’ve downloaded the exe fix and in a second everything is fine! Big thanx!

  11. perfect! fixed my .msc problem in 5 seconds. no joke. couldn’t thank you enough. just downloaded the file. opened it. ran it. done.

  12. This error for EXE files always occurs after a disk defrag, and I have had to reset to factory defaults TWICE. This reg fix FIXED MY PROBLEM!! Bless you !!!!

  14. I was worried about my files. I thought this problem is just because of viruses but now everything is fixed by your instruction 🙂
    Thank you sooooooo much!

  15. OH My Goodness, Thank you so much! I was near to tears but this fix worked in seconds. I can’t thank you enough.

  16. namaste.

    Thank you for making this resource available, this resource has helped me avoid hot water with the boss.

  18. HOLY SHIZ!!! I THINK IT WORKED!!!! I have been having a mental breakdown for the last 2 hours trying to fix this problem and then i stumble upon this page and it WORKED!!!!! HAPPIEST MAN ALIVE RIGHT NOW!!!… well not entirely true but I am still HAPPY!!!!!

  19. I’m trying to fix my PNGs to open in Fireworks CS6 instead of Windows Photo Viewer and the PNG fix above does not seem to have corrected the problem.

  20. Apologies. Do pardon my ignorance. I did not realize the ‘fix’ was to restore the default program (Windows Media Viewer). I am trying to get it AWAY from WMV, and am having a hell of a time because it won’t let me select the program I want to use. It ignores my attempts.

  21. You just saved my ass, man. My Sergeant Major was breathing down my neck to get this isuue fixed (even though he was the one that caused it). My local admins didn’t even know how to fix this; now I look like a genius. hahah Thanks.

  22. It worked!! Awesome!! Thanks! I fixed my corrupt file, folder, and directory keys. Thanks!!

  24. Thank you SO MUCH !!!! I was going bonkers restoring and ready to do full recovery which would take DAYS with updates and upgrades from Vista to Win 7 etc, LORD !!! You SAVED ME, THANK YOU SO MUCH the EXE fix did the trick. HOORAY !!!

  28. my friend accidentally missed up and turned the default program to torrent. I used the exe to fix the issue and it works. it helps me to resolve the problem.thank you.

  36. After I d/l ed the fix,I launched WinZip and the fix unzipped itself and merged
    itself.5 seconds and it was fixed!Thanks a lot!

  38. A million of thanks to you! Director fix worked like a charm for me. Now looking for a way to restart windows 7 update module, because it crashed and won’t get back on it’s feet again….

  39. Can I use one of these to create a custom association? I have a custom file extension .zrr and I want Windows 7 to search its compressed files like it would for a .zip file. Can I replace all instances of .zip in the zip_fix_w7.reg file with my custom .zrr and merge it, or is there something else I’d have to do?

  40. Completely confused. What am I supposed to download to cure my windows problem? This is an MS caused problem; one day everything worked and then after a block of updates I cannot use the highlighted text in emails to go direct to sites.

    What am I missing – apart from a brain that is 🙂

  41. Anyone with this problem, please READ this:
    I had by mistake all of my icons and links pointing to Notepad. Yesterday I went to countless sites and did everything they told me and NOTHING!!!

    Today I visited this site and applied the registry fix here, and I can’t begin to tell you how THANKFUL I am, this saved me from having to go through a very painful system restore, as I had done a bunch of work since the last backup…..

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

  45. Thanks alot, i stressed out myself to repair the prob and i found this. it fixed the issue right away.

  47. To fix your EXE association problem you may have to restart in “Safe Mode, Command prompt only”. Once you do this, you can run regedit to import the fix EXE file provided here.

  48. A Windows update appears to have upset something in my registry and I could no longer open folders. A message advising that no programme was associated with the file kept coming up. I came across your site and downloaded the fix to my directory. Hey Presto! Everything works again.

    Thank you very much!

  50. Thank you! Thank you! My wife downloaded some garbage screen capture software and the entire computer refused to run exe files even in safe mode. Fixed thanks to your .exe fix.

  51. Wow, thank you! You have provided a real service here. I’ve been troubleshooting for days until I found this.

  52. Oh THANK YOU! I have been scrounging all day for a way to fix this before my boyfriend came home and saw that I shouldn’t be allowed near any computers ever. You are a life saver.

  54. Although it warned me that some entries couldn’t be written into the registry, it fixed my LNK association on my W7-64 machine after a reboot.
    Sincere congratulations !

  62. Thanks it worked even though it had a warning message,I restarted my machine and all was back to normal!… Yipeeee thank you very much!.

  66. thank you so much! I am 12 years old and tried to open a game with explorer.exe to fix it and accidentally made it the default for all .exe files. This has saved my neck as my mother would probably kill me for breaking the PC! I even tried opening command prompt and restarted Explorer.exe to no avail.

    Just a big thank you!

  67. This really helped! I was afflicted by the “Windows Media Center has taken over my computer” syndrome. Actually WMC had substituted its icon for every icon that referred back to an .exe file. Click on the icon and you would get WMC. I used the fix for .exe extension, then rebooted, and all was back to normal. Thanks.

  68. Thank You So Very much. i spent 3 days trying numerous fixes and methods and you had and easy fix just laying here. i am forever your devoted fan.

  71. Thank You, I was so worried that something happened to my pc and all my games, documents, etc. gone I was nearly mad.
    But you saved my life. But there is still problem left-The images of their icon are not restored.

  72. Thank you so much for this site! Tried all kinds of fixes to no avail…this one fixed my exe file issue immediately

  74. im having alienware 17r2 this pc is something which cant afford… one the first day of use itself this error happened to me.. thank you so much for saving my pc …
    hats off

  75. OMG this worked like a charm. I have this problem for my LNK and EXE files. After months of agony, thank you so much.

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