How do I change what is listed in the Type column in Windows Explorer?

mattwarren · 16 May 2018

Hi all,

Back when my computer was initialized, most of my image file-types were connected to the abysmal Apowersoft crapware. I blasted away that garbage, but still see the vestiges hanging about. Although I have changed the default program for each of those file-types, I still see this nonsense in Windows Explorer:

How do I change what is listed in the Type column in Windows Explorer?-apowersoft-crapola.png

I would love to reset this. I can't help but feel like there's some grey-hat nonsense at work. Taking brand stickiness to a whole new height. Anyway, if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Due to the terms surrounding this issue it's been quite difficult to effectively search for an answer.

skcusime · 16 May 2018

So if you double-click one of the files you've highlighted, which program opens to view it?
Has Apowersoft been properly uninstalled?
What have you chosen to associate picture files with?

mattwarren · 22 May 2018

Whoops. I lost track of this one. Thanks for your follow-up, Skcusime.

Yes, APowersoft has been properly uninstalled (quite a while ago now). When I double-click on any of the items highlighted above, they open with the program that I personally assigned to each. It' just that the Type never changes. All my associations are nailed down. This is just.. garbagy stuff.

One other friend of mine said this smells like a RegEdit kind of thing. I haven't been brave enough to turn toward that just yet, but it may be in my future. This is minor, to be sure, but it just bugs me every time I see it. :)

Thanks again.

skcusime · 22 May 2018

Well if it were me, I'd reinstall APowersoft Photo Viewer, install Revo uninstaller, reboot, and then using Revo, uninstall APowersoft.
If was uninstalled completely, it wouldn't have any reference to it left on your drive.
Revo will uninstall all reference to it, and then you don't need to concern yourself with Regedit

pepanee · 22 May 2018

You can try this:

Open Settings > click Apps > (on the left side) click Default apps > (on the right side) scroll down to Photo viewer and click under that (refer to the picture). Change that to a different photo viewer on your computer.

How do I change what is listed in the Type column in Windows Explorer?-image.png

pepanee · 22 May 2018

Also, one of your settings may have been disabled from this site, or the emails you get from this site may be going to your spam folder (if applicable).

You can have this website send you a notification email once somebody responds to one of your threads (such as this one), so you can come back to this page and see what people have said. I am saying this because you responded about 6 days after somebody responded to this post, and you said that you completely forgot about your request.

Assuming so:
At the top of this page, click on Settings. Once the next page loads, scroll down a bit and click on General Settings on the left side. On the right side, you will see Default Thread Subscription Mode. In the box to its right, select: Instantly, using email

If that option is already set like so, then check your email's Spam Folder, and look for an email from this site. Make sure to unlist emails from this site from the Spam Folder.

Example: I use Hotmail [also known as Outlook Mail]. If I want to make sure a good email never goes to my Spam Folder:
1) I click on the Junk Email folder
2) Look for an email that is Not spam
3) Drag it to my Inbox folder
This will make all emails from that sender always end up in my Inbox folder, and not the Junk Email folder

dalchina · 23 May 2018

Hi, if you wish to look a little deeper you could use this free program - here I've chosen zip as this shows the text appearing in file explorer's file type column clearly under Description, shown in explorer at the bottom of the screenshot.

How do I change what is listed in the Type column in Windows Explorer?-1.jpg

You can also see further details of course, such as the associated program.

Whilst the program also lets you change those fields, I wouldn't suggest that here, although that would be 'safer' and easier than using a registry editor- better to try completely uninstalling those programs as suggested above, or succeeding in properly reassociating the relevant file types.