These applications support dozens, and sometimes even hundreds, of different file types that you can open with them directly. Lets take a look at some of the more popular file openers for the Windows operating system.

Free Opener

The program supports 80 different file types, from the latest Microsoft office files formats such as pptx, xlsx or docx, to common media file types like avi, mkv or flv to less popular extensions like tar archives or Outlook messages (msg).

The program has a size of about 25 Megabytes and will install a version of the Microsoft .NET Framework even though it may already be installed on the system. Just open the program afterwards and click on the open file icon in the toolbar to open a supported file on the system.

You can download Free Opener from the official website. There you will also find a list of supported file extensions.

Universal Viewer Free

The free version of Universal Viewer supports more than 200 file formats with the majority being image and multimedia formats. It does not support several high profile file extensions, including Microsoft Office 2007 formats and archives like zip or 7z. Users who need support for these types of files can open them with another program discussed in this overview.

You can open files by clicking on File > Open or using the open button in the main toolbar. Like Free Opener, drag and drop operations are not supported. The application integrates itself into Windows Explorer for direct opening of files.

Universal Viewer Free can be downloaded from the developer website. You can access our review of Universal Viewer here.

Open Freely

This one looks almost identical to Free Opener interface wise. It appears to support more file extensions than the other, at least according to the developer website.

Four major file extension groups are supported by the application: Documents, Audio/Video, Images and Compression. File extensions supported include all Microsoft Office formats, all major multimedia formats, as well as a lot of image and compression formats.

You can download Open Freely from the project homepage.

Closing Words

These programs are best suited to open files that you do not encounter on a regular basis. Even then you may be better off installing or running another program on the system. Instead of having to use two programs to open files, you could try and find a program that opens both of them. This is especially feasible when it comes to multimedia files.

Have you tried one of the programs before´

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.

Shadow Copy has to be installed on the computer system but can be run afterwards from the command prompt or by opening the graphical user interface. Running the tool from the command line will still open the interface after sending the command but it will require no user interaction unless errors occur.

Shadow Copy makes use of the Microsoft’s Volume Shadow service which means that this service has to be running to work with Shadow Copy. Microsoft renamed the feature in Windows Vista to Previous Versions. The service provides the means to copy any accessible file without having to worry about if the file is locked or open.

It is possible to copy the Windows folder to another location using the Shadow Copy software. Shadow Copy is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista. The software is portable as the installed files can be executed independently from the installation. (Tested after uninstalling the software)

The File Open Patcher software patches the Windows Open Files dialog in Comdlg32.dll with a new custom height that the user can select when executing the patch. The application recommends a new height and lists minimum and maximum height for the Open Files dialog by analysing the computer monitor.

The patch will be applied immediately but the changes will become apparent after the next reboot of the computer system. It is also necessary to apply the patch again after making updates to several core Windows components but it’s easy to notice because the Open Files dialog box should be smaller again.

One thing that I should have mentioned earlier is that the Open Files Patcher is not only affecting the Open but also the Save dialogs for most applications.