Export and Import Default App Associations for New Users in Windows  

zyraxes said:

Hi All,

First - thanks for the tutorial!

Quick question that I hope someone can help me with.

We are currently using Windows 10 Ent 1909. Following the steps in the tutorial I assigned the default apps, exported and imported the config via DISM. Created a new user and logged in for the first time to test if the associations were applied correctly (tested with PDF files). They did - everything looks correctly according to the Settings tab as shown below:

That is all good, however when I open a PDF file for the first time I'm getting the dialog below, asking to If I want to ''Keep using this app" and a checkbox to "Always use this app to open .pdf files".

Is there a way to bypass this message entirely and set pdf files to open in Reader without any messages upon first run for new users?

Thank you

Hello zyraxes,

I haven't tested this yet, but disabling the You have new apps that can open this type of file notification may help to stop this.

Disable 'You have new apps that can open this type of file'

zyraxes said:

AMAZING! That worked! Thanks a lot!

You're most welcome. Great news.

WaterCat said:

Is there a way to save & restore file associations to my own account?

Brink said:

Hello WaterCat,

I haven't seen a method that still works so far. Hopefully someone may know of a confirmed current method.

I had the same question. Since that time, I downloaded Nirsofts FileTypesMan - Alternative to 'File Types' manager of Windows. It has an option on it's File menu to "Save Selected Items" as a text file or xml file. You can also select everything & then use that option. This would not only save default associations, but also save a default double-click option (e.g. change the double-click of a .reg file to Edit, rather than Merge).

However, there's no option to merge this saved file. I'm wondering if anyone could figure out how to merge this file back into the registry?