gHacks technology news » file types

Change default and preferred applications in GNOME

Jack Wallen — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:29:07 +0000

When you open up Nautilus you will see plenty of files and folders. Most of those files are double-click-able icons when, when double clicked, will open with the associated application. Take for instance image files: When you double click on an image icon, by default, the application “Eye of GNOME” will open that file. The Eye of GNOME is an image viewing application and that is pretty much all it does (although it has a few bells an whistles). But what if you wanted that file to automatically open with The GIMP for image editing? There are a couple of ways to do this: For that single instance, or for all instances.

In this article I will show you how to change the default application for different files as well as change the preferred applications for the GNOME desktop (in another article I will illustrate the same task in KDE). And, naturally, this action is reversible.

Associated applications

Figure 1

The first step is to change the applications associated with different file types. Now before you do this know that you can selec the application to open a file by right clicking the folder and selecting the application from the “Open With” sub-menu (see Figure 1). You can also add applications to this menu (I’ll explain that in a moment).

But if that action is too many steps than changing the default application is what you will want. NOTE: Even if you change the default application, the “Open With” menu will see be there for you to use.

Figure 2

To change the default application right click the file type you want to associate with a different and click the Properties entry. When the Properties window opens click on the Open With tab (see Figure 2).

In this tab you can select a different application to associate with a file type. If the application is listed simply select that application and click close. If that application is not listed you will need to add the application. When you add an application to this list that application will also appear in the right click “Open With” sub-menu (see ealier).

When you click the Add button a list of installed applications will appear. Just select the application you want to use and click Add which will add the application and dismiss the new window.

With your new application added make sure the check box to the left of the application is selected. The application with the check box checked will be the application that opens when you double click that file type.

When you associated a default application to one file it associates itself to all files of that same type. NOTE: Just because you associate a new application with, say, a .png file does not mean it will associate will all image types. You will have to associate that application with .jpg, .tif, .gif, etc. files seperately.

Preferred applications

Figure 3

This is just as simple as changing the associated application for file types. If you click on the System menu and then on the Preferences sub-menu you will see the Preferred Applications entry. Click on that to open up a small window (see Figure 3) where you can change the preferred application for:

Web Browser
Mail Reader
Multimedia player
Terminal
Accessibility (visual and Mobility)

Each of these are a simple selection via drop-down list. Some have options and some do not.

Final thoughts

This is just another way of making your desktop experience an even easier experience. I hope you find this configuration helpful. Next time we deal with default applications it will be in the KDE 4.x environment.

Tags: default applications, double click, file types, preferred applications

File Extensions Identification

Martin — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:18:58 +0000

Every computer user will eventually encounter files that cannot be opened with the programs installed on the computer system. Experienced users might try to open those files in a basic text editor or perform a search on the Internet to find a program that can open files with those extensions.

Another possibility is the Open With desktop client which adds itself to the context menu of Windows Explorer after installation. A right-click on an unknown file type – or any file type actually – will display the “How Do I Open This” entry which will open a new window that contains a short description of the file type and software program suggestions to open those file extensions on the computer system.

Only free software programs have been listed during tests. Open With will link to the download page of those suggested programs or inform the user that the program is already installed on the computer system.

The display of the suggested software programs to open the file extensions was broken on the test system. Another aspect that many users will not like is that the program adds itself to the first position in the Windows Explorer context menu. To move the entry in Windows Explorer read Windows Explorer Context Menu Editor or Windows Explorer Menu Editor.

Lastly the program tries to install another application (PC Mighty Max 2009) during setup which is not needed for Open With to function properly. A quick check on the developer’s homepage revealed that it is a commercial software. It is not recommended to install that software.

Tags: file extensions, file identification, file types, files, open files, open with, windows software, windows-explorer

Manage Open With Applications In Windows

Martin — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:10:44 +0000

Another option that pops up when right-clicking a file type in Windows Explorer is the Open With menu which displays alternative applications that can be used to open the selected file type. It does happen that the Open With dialog contains several applications which the user would never use to open that file type. Who would for example think about opening a text document in Firefox instead of a text editor.

Open Expert is a free software program that can be used to manage the Open With applications in the Windows operating system. It adds the option to Configure Applications to the Open With menu which can be used to add, remove or sort the Open With applications.

A right-click on any file type and the selection of Open With > Configure Applications will display all applications that are currently configured for that file type. The add button provides the option to add a new applications while remove will delete an existing one. The up and down arrows can be used to sort the Open With menu to place the most commonly used applications at the top of it.

Open Expert is a lightweight 650 Kilobyte application that can be run on any Microsoft operating system prior to Windows Vista (Windows 9x to Windows XP).

Tags: file associations, file type, file types, open expert, open with, windows software, windows-explorer

Change File Associations with Types

Martin — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:02:58 +0000

Changing file associations in Windows XP and Windows Vista can be a tedious task. You first have to load the Folder Options in the Tools menu, select the File Types tab afterward, wait for the list to load, scroll down until you find the file type that you want to change, click on the change button to change the file association and browse the computer for the new application. You better take a day off if you want to change the associations of several file types.

Types on the other hand is a lightweight portable Open-Source software that runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista that makes it a tad easier to change file associations in both operating systems. It comes with a window that can actually be changed in size which means that it is possible to display virtually all file extensions on the screen at the same time.

The default application can be changed easily. Other options include changing the icon of the file type and deleting obsolete ones from the system.

Tags: file associations, file types, software, types, Windows

File Types Manager

Martin — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:44:17 +0000

If you want to find out which file type is opened by which application you normally take a look into the File Types tab in Tools > Folder Options. Unfortunately though this menu that is displaying all registered file types is not listing lots of information especially if you consider that you cannot resize the window which means that you can only see several file types there and have to scroll a lot.

File Types Manager from Nirsoft is an alternative that adds additional information, functions and a window that is resizable. The File Types Manager lists additional information like the default icon, the mime type and the modified time to the list of available information.

Default applications can be changed by pressing F4 or by right-clicking the file type and selecting replace file type for selected extension. A list of available applications will be displayed and the user simply selects on to change the default application.

Selecting a file type and pressing F2 makes it possible to edit the file type. It is possible to change the file description, the default icon, the mime type, the perceived type as well as several advanced options like to always show the file type, to not open the file type in a browser window or to open the file type immediately after download without confirmation.

This is another excellent software from Nirsoft, thanks to Donation Coder who discovered this gem.

Tags: file type, file types, software, Windows

WAssociate repair file type associations

Martin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 19:08:39 +0000

I have written about a way to manually repair file type associations in Windows by using two commands and the Windows command line. While this works in most cases and is certainly faster than using a software for the matter it has its limitations.

WAssociate is a software that is able to change file type associations of all file types in Windows. The software requires a little bit of knowledge of how file types are assigned in Windows but is well worth that time. It displays all known file types and their associations by pulling the data from the Windows registry.

It is possible to select the application that should be used to open the file type and to add additional parameters to the command as well. This is a good way to quickly fix several file type associations. It is possible to create new file type associations by typing the file extension in the ‘Extension’ form.

How to fix broken file associations
WAssociate (thanks Roman for letting me know about this software)

Tags: broken file association, file associations, file types, wassociate

gHacks technology news » file types

Change default and preferred applications in GNOME

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