Archive for the ‘windows tweaks’ Category

Feature Focus: How to disable the “Windows cannot open this file” dialog box

Posted on August 21st, 2009 in default-programs-editor, documentation, dpe-cross-site, windows tweaks | 1 Comment »

If you’ve ever clicked on some file in Windows and seen this dialog box, you know what I’m talking about:

unknown-file-dialog

The web service is completely useless, and most of the time you already know what program you want to use to open the file. Luckily, it is easy to disable this dialog box with Default Programs Editor (download). Simply launch the program, and click on the Options button:

options-button

Options button

Then, click the button that says

Disable 'Search web for unknown extension' Dialog Box
Disable 'Search web for unknown extension' Dialog Box

Disable 'Search web for unknown extension' Dialog Box

And that’s it!

Now, when you try to open a file with an unknown extension, Windows will skip the unknown extension dialog and display the “Open With…” window to choose a program.

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Default Programs Editor

Posted on July 11th, 2008 in default-programs-editor, release, windows tweaks | No Comments »

This is an advanced Windows file association utility

Screenshot of Default Programs Editor

Here is some sweet stuff you can do with it:

  • Manually add extension information
  • Change a file type’s description
  • Change a file type’s icon
  • Change an extension’s associated file type
  • Add/Edit/Delete an extension’s default association
  • Add/Edit/Delete other entries on the file’s context menu
  • Preserve verb precedence hierarchy
  • View shell extension entries on the context menu
  • Remove ‘Default Programs’ association that Windows likes to make annoying to change
  • Add/Edit/Delete your own autoplay handlers
  • Change which autoplay options are available for users
  • Disable that “Search web for unknown extension” dialog
  • Single .exe utility, no installation

On top of all that, here are some bonus features:

  • Make changes direct to the registry, or export them as .reg files for easy distribution
  • Designed for Vista, with UAC support, so you can painlessly run as a standard user
  • Works with XP too (a few features disabled, just use TweakUI)
  • Make changes to your user account, or the machine default, or both

Documentation is admittedly sparse right now, but here are some how-to’s:

Feel free to email me with any suggestions or questions.

Download

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XMouse Toggle

Posted on February 28th, 2008 in release, windows tweaks, xmouse toggle | No Comments »

Here is a little utility to turn “XMouse” behavior on and off. This means that when you hover the mouse over a window, that window becomes activated, but doesn’t come to the front. It’s handy to scroll background windows. Requires .Net 2.0.

XMouse Toggle screenshot

Download

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Make Explorer auto-complete directories as you type

Posted on February 3rd, 2008 in windows tweaks | No Comments »

As it turns out, this is possible, it’s just a simple registry tweak.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoComplete]
"Append Completion"="Yes"

If you’re not in the mood to manually edit your registry, I’ve put that into this handy registry key file.

Download

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