Windows itself offers to search for a suitable file but history has shown that the feature is not as reliable as it should be as no suitable program is offered most of the time.

The free software Smart File Advisor is an alternative to Window’s native association search. The application displays its screen whenever a file is loaded that no program is associated with.

It offers to search the file Facts database for an appropriate program to open the file type. It is optionally possible to submit the first 20 bytes of the file which is usually part of the file header to improve identification.

Users who do not want to search the online database can instead skip the procedure and use Windows to manage the file type. The second option displays the standard Windows dialog to pick a program to open the file.

The program launches the file facts website if the option is selected by the user.

The software simplifies the process of searching for a suitable program. Users who do not want to install it can simply bookmark the developer website instead to search for the appropriate program there. Smart File Advisor is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows, a download is offered at the File Facts website. (via)

One common problem of the latter are disabled system tools and file associations so that it becomes harder to spot and remove the virus or malicious software from the PC.

File Association Fixer is a free portable software for the Windows operating system that can fix broken file associations. A file association basically links a file type, like exe or jpg, to a program. This program is the default program the file is executed with.

It can be very problematic if a virus modified for instance Registry files or folders so that they cannot be opened with the default program. A reg file is a Registry file that can be used to add or remove Registry entries which is often used to remove virus leftovers.

File Associations Fixer displays a list of file types sorted alphabetically on launch.

A click on any of the offered file types will reset the file association to the default program. This has to be done for every file type that the user wants to fix.

A restart is required after that operation for the new file associations to be loaded by the Windows operating system.

File Association Fixer can be a helpful program after a virus attack. The computer program is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7 and can be downloaded from the Windows Club website.

Some users may have tried to change the file association with a double-click on the file after removing all existing associations from it.

My particular problem occurred after moving an application to another drive. Loading the file from within that application worked fine which was good to know. I tried searching the Internet for an solution but was not able to find one.

I then decided to solve the problem on my own. Here is how I repaired the broken file association and added the right executable as the default software for this application. Everything that needs to be done can be done using the command line and two commands.

Open the Windows command line and type the follwing ‘Assoc .ext’ replacing .ext with the file extension in question. It should display something like ‘.ext=name’.

Remember that and type ‘ftype name=”path to executable”‘. You might need to write ‘assoc .ext=name’ again to finish the process.

This way the file extension will again be associated with the correct executable. Below is a screenshot of how I changed the broken file association using the command line.

Update: Some users have asked for an example: Type Assoc .nzb into the command prompt and hit enter. Windows should now return the associated class for the file type. You can now use the command ftype [class]=”new path to program” to fix the file association, e.g. ftype nzb_auto_file=”d:\test\nbpro.exe”.