Files are typically associated with a designated application on your system. This means, when you double-click on a file it opens the file with the associated application. These associations are made by file extension (i.e.: .doc=document, .txt=text file, .bmp=bitmap image, .zip=compressed archive, etc., etc.) Files can be associted with several different programs. Only one application (or action) can be the default (double-click). Folders are also associated with applications. You can change the way that a folder opens. When you right-click on a file or folder, the top menu items are customizable. The topmost action listed on the right-click is the default action. You can add or remove actions from the right-click menu. It is important to associates files with the right type of application (you would not want to double-click on a picture file and have a text editor open). The possibilities are endless, I will cover some common examples of associations on this page.

Let's start out with folders. By default, folders (and drives) open in a single window. I prefer to have them open in Windows Explorer. Go to Start/Programs/Windows Explorer, click on the "view" menu and select the last option, which is "options" now click on the (file types tab). This is where all of your file associations are stored. Scroll down the list until you find "folder" NOT "file folder". Highlight "folder" with the mouse and select the [edit button]. There should be two actions listed "explore" and "open", the default action (in this case "open") will be shown in bold typeface. Highlight the "explore" action and hit the [set default] button. Hit the [OK button], then hit the [close button]. Now whenever you double-click a folder, drive, or 'My Computer' icon, it will open in Windows Explorer. The right side of Explorer will display the contents of the folder or drive that was opened.

Now let's look at the example of changing the default association for bitmap picture (.bmp) files. By default, bitmaps are associated with Microsoft Paint. If you use other graphics programs that support bitmap images (in this example we will use Paint Shop Pro), that you might want to be the default program for viewing and editing bitmap images. Once again, go to Start/Programs/Windows Explorer, click on the "view" menu and select the last option which is "options", now click on the (file types tab). Scroll down to bitmap image, highlight and hit [edit button]. Now highlight "open" and hit [edit button]. Next hit the "browse" button and navigate to the executable (.exe) file of the application you want to use (in this case Paint Shop Pro) highlight the file and hit the [open button], then hit the [OK button], then hit the [close button]. [Alternatively, you can type the path to the executable in the "Application used to perform action" box ie: "C:\Program Files\Paint Shop Pro\psp.exe" OR C:\PSP\psp.exe depending on your version of Paint Shop]. Guess what? Now whenever you double-click on a bitmap (.bmp) file it will open in Paint Shop Pro or the application of your choice.

An example of this is when you install a word processor like Microsoft Word. All of your document (.doc) files will now be associated with Word and will open in Word when you double-click on them. If you only want to view most of your documents and not actually do much editing, you might want to use Wordpad as your default application for viewing (.doc) files. Wordpad is a much smaller program, therefore it opens much faster. In this case, go to Start/Programs/Windows Explorer, click on the "view" menu and select the last option which is "options", now click on the (file types tab) tab. Scroll down to "Microsoft Word Document", highlight and hit the [edit button]. Next hit the [new button]. In the "Action" box type "Open in Wordpad" minus the quotes. In the "Application used to perform action" box type "C:\Program Files\Accessories\Wordpad.exe" this time WITH THE QUOTES because of the long filenames. Hit the [OK button]. Now highlight "Open in Wordpad" in the "Actions" window and hit "set default". Now all of your (.doc) files will open in Wordpad. If you skip the last step, you can then right-click on a (.doc) file and select "Open in Wordpad" which leaves the default setting with Word. You can use the same procedure to change association of (.doc) files to any other word processor you might have installed.

Whenever you right-click on a file, a popup menu appears. The top item listed in bold typeface is the default action. You can add or remove associated programs below the default action. For this example we will use JPEG (.jpg, .jpe, .jpeg) image files, which open in Internet Explorer by default. We will add right-click options for "Open in Paint Shop" and "Open in Lview" (both of these programs are picture editors that support the JPEG file format. 1)Go to Start/Programs/Windows Explorer, click on the "view" menu and select the last option which is "options", now click on the (file types tab) tab. Scroll down to "JPEG Image", highlight and hit the [edit button]. Next hit [new button]. In the "Action" box type "Open in Paint Shop" minus the quotes. Next hit browse and navigate to the executable (.exe) file of the application (in this case Paint Shop Pro) highlight the file and hit the [open button], then hit [OK button], then hit the [close button]. 2)Now we will repeat step #1 above substituting "Open in Lview" and navigate to the executable for Lview. You can change the default action by going to Start/Programs/Windows Explorer, click on the "view" menu and select the last option which is "options", now click on the (file types tab) tab. Scroll down to the file type you want to change, highlight and hit [edit button]. Now highlight the action you want to be your default (double-click) action and hit [set default].

Hopefully the examples above will help you to customize your file associations to your liking. You can customize many types of files including sounds, pictures, documents, Internet files, etc. If you have any questions about a specific file type, stop by #win95info on IRC-EFnet and chat with our technical staff or send an e-mail to win95info@oocities.com.