Adding applications to "Open with" pick-list

[Franc Zabkar]

When you hold down the Shift key and r-click a highlighted file in
Explorer, or when you launch a file type for which there is no
association, you are presented with an "Open with" pick-list.

This list appears to be generated from the active file associations at
the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry key. This means that if you have two
applications which are used for opening PDF files, say, then only the
currently active one will show up in the list. To select the other
one, you need to choose "Other" and then browse for it.

Currently what I'm doing is creating a dummy file type and associating
the second application with the dummy. For example, Opera is my
default browser for HTM and HTML files, but OffByOne still shows up in
the pick list because I've associated it with a dummy .OB1 file type.
Similarly, Foxit Reader is associated with .FOX file types and Acrobat
Reader with PDFs.

Is there an elegant way to force an application, for which there is no
association, into the pick-list, or am I stuck with this kludge?

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

 

[reply@thisnewsgroup.com]

Probably a more logical kluge is to add an action to an existing file
type in the same way as you add a new type. For example, I edited the
Adobe Acrobat Document (PDF) file type and added a new action called
Look. Then for the application to perform the new operation I browsed
for Foxit Reader. Now it shows up in the open with list without having
to add a new file type to clutter the list of file types.

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:44:25 +1100, Franc Zabkar
<fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote:

|When you hold down the Shift key and r-click a highlighted file in
|Explorer, or when you launch a file type for which there is no
|association, you are presented with an "Open with" pick-list.
|
|This list appears to be generated from the active file associations at
|the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry key. This means that if you have two
|applications which are used for opening PDF files, say, then only the
|currently active one will show up in the list. To select the other
|one, you need to choose "Other" and then browse for it.
|
|Currently what I'm doing is creating a dummy file type and associating
|the second application with the dummy. For example, Opera is my
|default browser for HTM and HTML files, but OffByOne still shows up in
|the pick list because I've associated it with a dummy .OB1 file type.
|Similarly, Foxit Reader is associated with .FOX file types and Acrobat
|Reader with PDFs.
|
|Is there an elegant way to force an application, for which there is no
|association, into the pick-list, or am I stuck with this kludge?
|
|- Franc Zabkar

 

[reply@thisnewsgroup.com]

Forgot to add, the Look operation also now shows up when I right click a
PDF file, so I don't need the shift key or Open With.

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:11:34 -0700, reply@thisnewsgroup.com wrote:

|Probably a more logical kluge is to add an action to an existing file
|type in the same way as you add a new type. For example, I edited the
|Adobe Acrobat Document (PDF) file type and added a new action called
|Look. Then for the application to perform the new operation I browsed
|for Foxit Reader. Now it shows up in the open with list without having
|to add a new file type to clutter the list of file types.
|
|On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:44:25 +1100, Franc Zabkar
|<fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote:
|
||When you hold down the Shift key and r-click a highlighted file in
||Explorer, or when you launch a file type for which there is no
||association, you are presented with an "Open with" pick-list.
||
||This list appears to be generated from the active file associations at
||the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry key. This means that if you have two
||applications which are used for opening PDF files, say, then only the
||currently active one will show up in the list. To select the other
||one, you need to choose "Other" and then browse for it.
||
||Currently what I'm doing is creating a dummy file type and associating
||the second application with the dummy. For example, Opera is my
||default browser for HTM and HTML files, but OffByOne still shows up in
||the pick list because I've associated it with a dummy .OB1 file type.
||Similarly, Foxit Reader is associated with .FOX file types and Acrobat
||Reader with PDFs.
||
||Is there an elegant way to force an application, for which there is no
||association, into the pick-list, or am I stuck with this kludge?
||
||- Franc Zabkar

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:11:34 -0700, reply@thisnewsgroup.com put finger
to keyboard and composed:

>Probably a more logical kluge is to add an action to an existing file
>type in the same way as you add a new type. For example, I edited the
>Adobe Acrobat Document (PDF) file type and added a new action called
>Look. Then for the application to perform the new operation I browsed
>for Foxit Reader. Now it shows up in the open with list without having
>to add a new file type to clutter the list of file types.

I tried something similar for HTM and HTML files in an earlier related
thread (I added an "open with other_browser" action) but I couldn't
get my OffByOne browser to show up in the Open With list until I used
the dummy file association.

My problem is that I can't rely on Explorer's context menu because
some applications, eg my Agent newsreader, use their own context
menus.

Anyway, I've now edited my PDF associations as you have done, and I've
done the same for DOC files.

BTW, one benefit of explicitly adding "open with Foxit" and "open with
Acrobat" to the context menu is that it works around (but doesn't
stop) Foxit's annoying habit of hijacking the PDF file association.

Thanks for your input.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

 

[Lee]

On Oct 12, 1:44 pm, Franc Zabkar <fzab...@iinternode.on.net> wrote:
> When you hold down the Shift key and r-click a highlighted file in
> Explorer, or when you launch a file type for which there is no
> association, you are presented with an "Open with" pick-list.
>
> This list appears to be generated from the active file associations at
> the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT registry key. This means that if you have two
> applications which are used for opening PDF files, say, then only the
> currently active one will show up in the list. To select the other
> one, you need to choose "Other" and then browse for it.
>
> Currently what I'm doing is creating a dummy file type and associating
> the second application with the dummy. For example, Opera is my
> default browser for HTM and HTML files, but OffByOne still shows up in
> the pick list because I've associated it with a dummy .OB1 file type.
> Similarly, Foxit Reader is associated with .FOX file types and Acrobat
> Reader with PDFs.
>
> Is there an elegant way to force an application, for which there is no
> association, into the pick-list, or am I stuck with this kludge?
>
> - Franc Zabkar
> --
> Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

You don't need a real association to create a valid entry in the Open
With List. Under any dummyfiletype entry, point to your app with a
valid short file name path using the standard shell|open|command
"train" and included the standard %1 parameter and you'll get the app
listed for all Open With Lists and it will work no matter what the
extension.

The shown entry may get it's icon from the executable or you might be
able to point to one using a DefaultIcon entry as per usual.

gifferfile
defaultIcon "C:\progra~1\common~1\micros~1\DAO\dao360.dll,2"
shell
open
command "C:\progra~1\common~1\micros~1\DAO\dao360.dll %1"

There is no .gifferfile or any other standard type of extension listed
under HKEY_Classes_Root area. The Open With list creator will accept
only valid executable paths, it will also truncate any spaces in a
given path to give a blank icon program listing named PROGRAM derived
from a "Program Files" path for example.

I dunno about elegant though, smells more like kludgey to me.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:07:10 -0700 (PDT), Lee <melee5@my-deja.com> put
finger to keyboard and composed:

>You don't need a real association to create a valid entry in the Open
>With List. Under any dummyfiletype entry, point to your app with a
>valid short file name path using the standard shell|open|command
>"train" and included the standard %1 parameter and you'll get the app
>listed for all Open With Lists and it will work no matter what the
>extension.

Thanks. I've now deleted the .ob1 and .fox keys in my registry and
edited the fox_auto_file and ob1_auto_file keys. Nothing broke, so it
looks like an ideal solution.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:45:54 +1100, Franc Zabkar
<fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> put finger to keyboard and composed:

>BTW, one benefit of explicitly adding "open with Foxit" and "open with
>Acrobat" to the context menu is that it works around (but doesn't
>stop) Foxit's annoying habit of hijacking the PDF file association.

I've just discovered that I can prevent Foxit from hijacking the PDF
file association by adding the "-NoRegister" switch to the command
line.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.