Windows asks default program even after being set: disable this?

Update: apparently, the above tutorial does not fix the issue.

We are back at square one.

I installed a registry tracker to see what was changed when I told Windows to use the program that I had previously told it to use, and it pointed me to this registry key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Roaming\OpenWith]

There are "FileExts" and "UrlAssociations" subtrees. In the FileExts tree, there's an entry for every extension where there is more than one app. There's a UserChoice key under that.

For extensions where you've told it the app, it looks like this:
"Hash"="9y6MzyOZgPs="
"ProgId"="VLC.3ga"

For extensions where Windows will ask you, it looks like this:
"Hash"="AuVy+LqM+XE="
"ProgId"="AppX43hnxtbyyps62jhe9sqpdzxn1790zetc"

Then I noticed that there were extensions that were registered that did not appear on that OpenWith list, which made my next step obvious:

I backed it up, then deleted the whole [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Roaming\OpenWith] tree.

Works great. Everything opens with the app that's registered, without double-checking if that's what I really want.

It's worked so far for me. Please let me know if this works or doesn't work for you.

I also deleted the "UrlAssociations" key, just because.

Didn't work for me. I'm still asked how to open a PDF every time, with stock MS viewer already selected, no tickbox to always use that app...

Beezlesnort said:

I installed a registry tracker to see what was changed when I told Windows to use the program that I had previously told it to use, and it pointed me to this registry key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Roaming\OpenWith]

There are "FileExts" and "UrlAssociations" subtrees. In the FileExts tree, there's an entry for every extension where there is more than one app. There's a UserChoice key under that.

For extensions where you've told it the app, it looks like this:
"Hash"="9y6MzyOZgPs="
"ProgId"="VLC.3ga"

For extensions where Windows will ask you, it looks like this:
"Hash"="AuVy+LqM+XE="
"ProgId"="AppX43hnxtbyyps62jhe9sqpdzxn1790zetc"

Then I noticed that there were extensions that were registered that did not appear on that OpenWith list, which made my next step obvious:

I backed it up, then deleted the whole [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Roaming\OpenWith] tree.

Works great. Everything opens with the app that's registered, without double-checking if that's what I really want.

It's worked so far for me. Please let me know if this works or doesn't work for you.

I also deleted the "UrlAssociations" key, just because.

Deleting the whole Open with tree worked for me too! Thanks. It was rather annoying to set the default application for JPEG, MPG and other extensions every day! Yes, every day Windows would ask me how to open the file or open it with Windows apps instead of my preferred applications! Really annoying! I hope it is a permanent solution. Thank you again!

Hi,

I'd appreciate help.

I didn’t have success deleting [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Roaming\OpenWith] from the registry as suggested in this thread.

As I detailed in this screen-recording (windows pop-up default app.mp4 - Google Drive), if I run the files from Windows Explorer, there is no problem and the default program launches properly. No annoying pop-up window!

However, the pop-up window asking "how do you want to open this file?" always appears when I run the file through a link from any other application (e.g. MS Word).

Does anyone know how to open default program always, in any situation, without pop-up "how do you want to open this file"?

Thanks for assistance,
Cadu

Hope this helps:
WIN+R: "ComputerDefaults.exe" and choose default programs NOT by Mircosoft

dr4ke4i said:

Hope this helps:
WIN+R: "ComputerDefaults.exe" and choose default programs NOT by Mircosoft

Thanks, but I don't see any such setting in Windows 10 Pro x64 20H2.