Category Archives: release

Default Programs Editor 1.1 update

Version 1.1

  • Now distributing as the exe and this changes file in a zip instead of just the exe.
  • Put Context Menu and File Type properties group boxes into separate tabs.
  • Replaced File Type column in the main extension list with Friendly Type Name.
  • Autogenerated key names are now converted to lower case to fit with convention.
  • A couple of additional minor UI adjustments.
  • Url in the exported .reg comment was wrong.
  • “Show shell extensions” checkbox moved to the Advanced Config tab (which means its state is persistent across sessions now).
  • Searching for an extension in both the main extension list, and the File Type dialog now also transparently searches file type key names.
  • Fixed the bug on XP where showing shell extension verbs caused it to crash
  • New File Types are now created in the Select File Type dialog.
  • The Add Extension dialog has been reworked to be more intuitive.

Here’s the biggest change to the UI- tabs replaced panes for Context Menu and File Type groups:

Default Programs Editor 1.1 screenshot

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Default Programs Editor

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.

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Mark for Deletion

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This is a command line utility that marks a file or directory for deletion on the next reboot. It’s useful to remove files that are in use, such as file identified by antispyware, etc (though most of the time those programs can handle this themselves). Note that this requires elevated privileges, because the API it calls (MoveFileEx) writes to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Also, this will bypass the Recycle Bin when deleting the file. One last caveat: if you specify a directory, it must be empty. Requires .Net 2.0

Usage: >mfdelc.exe “some annoying file.dll”

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