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Author Topic: IDEA: Per-user file extension handlers  (Read 4117 times)

TucknDar

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IDEA: Per-user file extension handlers
« on: April 17, 2006, 12:51 PM »
The one thing that annoys me most about my Windows 2000 system, is the fact that all (or in my case, both) users have to have the same default applications for everything. Think browser, e-mail client and every other application as well. For instance I use OpenOffice while my girlfriend, the other user, uses Word. To open a .doc file, she can double-click it, while I have to use the context menu (or hotkey in Total Commander).

mouser's BrowserTraySwitch is fine for the browser-part (at least with my suggested modifications: https://www.donation...94.msg22445#msg22445 ;) ), but I would love to see a utility that would let me set which application should open this or that extension. Let me explain a little further. The way the registry in win2k (and xp, I believe) works, what I want done would have to be set in the login fase, so I'm thinking the utility should be put in the startup-folder (or similar) of each user's account, do its magic and exit.

I'm sure this can be done through batch, and with a little reading I might even be able to do it myself, but what I'd like is a utility with a GUI where you can add file extension, application and optional parameters. I suppose the utility needs to save its settings in each users account, ie. in a file in %appdata%<PerUserExtensionUtil>\ so that the affected file extensions are automatically configured for each user, with his/her preferred default handler. I don't know whether it is possible to create a file there for each user automatically, so a few alternatives would be for the utility to store all users settings in a single file (is it possible for it to obtain all usernames?) or for the user to be prompted upon next login, ie. something like "Default command for all files with extension <ext> has changed to <application.exe>, would you like to continue using this command or set another?"

A utility like this would sure help make win2k/xp a lot more multi-userfriendly.

If you need me to clarify more, then please do ask!