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Fresh reinstall and file associations

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  Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-06 06:46 -0800
    Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-02-06 09:26 -0600
    Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-02-06 12:00 -0500
      Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> - 2025-02-06 17:59 +0000
    Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "Alan K." <alan@invalid.com> - 2025-02-06 13:47 -0500
    Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations ...w¡ñ§±¤ñ  <winstonmvp@gmail.com> - 2025-02-06 14:16 -0700
    Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-06 17:26 -0800
      Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-06 17:40 -0800
        Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-02-06 21:11 -0600
          Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> - 2025-02-07 12:59 +0000
        Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "Allan Higdon" <allanh@vivaldi.net> - 2025-02-07 07:24 -0600
        Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-02-07 10:57 -0500
        Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2025-02-07 16:40 +0000
        Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-07 15:24 -0800
      Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-02-06 21:12 -0600
        Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-07 04:17 -0800
          Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-02-07 08:18 -0600
            Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-07 15:31 -0800
              Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-02-07 19:10 -0600
          Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations ...w¡ñ§±¤ñ  <winstonmvp@gmail.com> - 2025-02-07 09:37 -0700
        Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-03-02 05:42 -0800
          Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-03-02 14:50 -0600
            Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-03-03 06:19 -0800
              Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-03-03 14:26 -0600
                Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-03-04 04:04 -0800
                  Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-03-04 11:53 -0600
      Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> - 2025-02-07 16:48 +0000
    Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations Mr Xi Ji Ping <ping@china.cn> - 2025-02-07 03:00 +0000
      Re: Fresh reinstall and file associations "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> - 2025-02-07 04:19 -0800

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#182710

On 25/02/06 07:12 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:
>>> Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
>>> setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
>>> files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.
>>>
>>> Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
>>> works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
>>> attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
>>> Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
>>> apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
>>> in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
>>> ...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.
>>>
>>> Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
>>> (let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
>>> file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.
>>>
>>> Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
>>> associations like in Windows 7?
>>>
>>> Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?
>>>
>>> TIA.
>> To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.
>>
>> So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
>> been way too problematic.
>>
>> I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
>> then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
>> programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
>> all work.
>>
>> Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.
> 
> You sure you wouldn't be happier just sticking with the fresh Windows 7
> install, and forget Windows 10 altogether, for now.

It's a done deal. I'm using W10 at this point. What led to my
reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I was able to do,
since my system is so old that it can't boot from a thumb drive) was
that I was unable to save changes to my documents without doing a
workaround. It might have been that the problem was due to CFA being
activated when I did the first reinstall. I don't know. CFA works, I'm
sure, as a method of blocking ransomware, but perhaps there might be a
better solution which doesn't confuse the average end user of the OS so
much. CFA is a lot of work to set up (like one of the old firewalls) and
like you mentioned in another post, there's no way that MS can create or
maintain a list of all the software which would be safe to use.

-- 
John C.

Take back Microsoft from India.

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#182725

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On 25/02/06 07:12 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>> "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:
>>>> Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
>>>> setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
>>>> files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.
>>>>
>>>> Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
>>>> works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
>>>> attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
>>>> Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
>>>> apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
>>>> in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
>>>> ...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.
>>>>
>>>> Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
>>>> (let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
>>>> file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.
>>>>
>>>> Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
>>>> associations like in Windows 7?
>>>>
>>>> Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?
>>>>
>>>> TIA.
>>> To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.
>>>
>>> So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
>>> been way too problematic.
>>>
>>> I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
>>> then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
>>> programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
>>> all work.
>>>
>>> Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.
>> 
>> You sure you wouldn't be happier just sticking with the fresh Windows 7
>> install, and forget Windows 10 altogether, for now.
> 
> It's a done deal. I'm using W10 at this point. What led to my
> reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I was able to do,
> since my system is so old that it can't boot from a thumb drive) was
> that I was unable to save changes to my documents without doing a
> workaround. It might have been that the problem was due to CFA being
> activated when I did the first reinstall. I don't know. CFA works, I'm
> sure, as a method of blocking ransomware, but perhaps there might be a
> better solution which doesn't confuse the average end user of the OS so
> much. CFA is a lot of work to set up (like one of the old firewalls) and
> like you mentioned in another post, there's no way that MS can create or
> maintain a list of all the software which would be safe to use.

Or possibly your Windows account under which you were logged in did not
have write permissions in the folder containing the file you could read.
As I recall, when you attempt to save, but you don't have write
permission, you are offered to save the modified file to elsewhere, like
to the desktop.

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#182742

On 25/03/02 12:50 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
> "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 25/02/06 07:12 PM, VanguardLH wrote:
>>> "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 25/02/06 06:46 AM, John C. wrote:
>>>>> Well, I did it. I reinstalled Windows 10 Pro. And although I told the
>>>>> setup not to save my files and settings, it wound up saving a lot of my
>>>>> files which weren't in the documents or pictures folders.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now I'm trying to reinstall the applications that I had before. This
>>>>> works pretty well except for one HUGE problem. Whenever a program
>>>>> attempts to set up file associations, it's prevented from doing so by
>>>>> Windows. Instead, I have to tediously go into Settings/Apps/Default
>>>>> apps/Choose default apps by file types and tediously find the extension
>>>>> in that massive list so that I can change the file association for it,
>>>>> ...one ...file ...type ...at ...a ...time.
>>>>>
>>>>> Alternatively, I can wait until I need to open a particular file type
>>>>> (let's use either a .zip or an .mp3 as an example), right click on the
>>>>> file, select "Open with>" and set the default application from there.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
>>>>> associations like in Windows 7?
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, why in the world would Microsoft make it so difficult to do like this?
>>>>>
>>>>> TIA.
>>>> To all of you who have replied, thanks very much for doing so.
>>>>
>>>> So at this point, ...every ...single ...program ...reinstall so far has
>>>> been way too problematic.
>>>>
>>>> I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
>>>> then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
>>>> programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
>>>> all work.
>>>>
>>>> Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.
>>>
>>> You sure you wouldn't be happier just sticking with the fresh Windows 7
>>> install, and forget Windows 10 altogether, for now.
>>
>> It's a done deal. I'm using W10 at this point. What led to my
>> reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I was able to do,
>> since my system is so old that it can't boot from a thumb drive) was
>> that I was unable to save changes to my documents without doing a
>> workaround. It might have been that the problem was due to CFA being
>> activated when I did the first reinstall. I don't know. CFA works, I'm
>> sure, as a method of blocking ransomware, but perhaps there might be a
>> better solution which doesn't confuse the average end user of the OS so
>> much. CFA is a lot of work to set up (like one of the old firewalls) and
>> like you mentioned in another post, there's no way that MS can create or
>> maintain a list of all the software which would be safe to use.
> 
> Or possibly your Windows account under which you were logged in did not
> have write permissions in the folder containing the file you could read.
> As I recall, when you attempt to save, but you don't have write
> permission, you are offered to save the modified file to elsewhere, like
> to the desktop.

That was the weird thing about it. I did have write permission, because
my account then (as now) was an administrator one. And that it was only
specific folders (like Documents and Pictures) where I was blocked from
altering files, that kind of points towards CFA.

-- 
John C.

Take back Microsoft from India.

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#182748

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> "John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> What led to my reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I
>>> was able to do, since my system is so old that it can't boot from a
>>> thumb drive) was that I was unable to save changes to my documents
>>> without doing a workaround. It might have been that the problem was
>>> due to CFA being activated when I did the first reinstall. 
>> 
>> Or possibly your Windows account under which you were logged in did
>> not have write permissions in the folder containing the file you
>> could read. As I recall, when you attempt to save, but you don't
>> have write permission, you are offered to save the modified file to
>> elsewhere, like to the desktop.
> 
> That was the weird thing about it. I did have write permission,
> because my account then (as now) was an administrator one. And that
> it was only specific folders (like Documents and Pictures) where I
> was blocked from altering files, that kind of points towards CFA.

By default, CFA is disabled.  You had to deliberately manually enable it
to throttle access to files in your Documents folder.  Users had to
discover the feature, enable it, and realize it was too onerous.  I'm
assuming you are logging in under a local or Microsoft account, and not
on a workstation that is part of a corporate domain where policies can
be pushed by a PDA server.

Also, Administrator, or Windows accounts in the Administrators security
group, do not have all priveleges.  There will still be folders to which
you are not granted full access.  That's why I leave UAC enabled.  If I
don't have access, UAC notifies me, and UAC will elevate my permissions
if I request it to do so.  A lot easier than me right-clicking on a
folder to look under the Security tab to check what all permissions my
Windows account had on the folder to figure out what to change.

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#182759

VanguardLH wrote:
> John C. wrote:
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>> John C. wrote:
>>>>
>>>> What led to my reinstalling W10 from scratch (at least as much as I
>>>> was able to do, since my system is so old that it can't boot from a
>>>> thumb drive) was that I was unable to save changes to my documents
>>>> without doing a workaround. It might have been that the problem was
>>>> due to CFA being activated when I did the first reinstall. 
>>>
>>> Or possibly your Windows account under which you were logged in did
>>> not have write permissions in the folder containing the file you
>>> could read. As I recall, when you attempt to save, but you don't
>>> have write permission, you are offered to save the modified file to
>>> elsewhere, like to the desktop.
>>
>> That was the weird thing about it. I did have write permission,
>> because my account then (as now) was an administrator one. And that
>> it was only specific folders (like Documents and Pictures) where I
>> was blocked from altering files, that kind of points towards CFA.
> 
> By default, CFA is disabled.  You had to deliberately manually enable it
> to throttle access to files in your Documents folder.  Users had to
> discover the feature, enable it, and realize it was too onerous.  I'm
> assuming you are logging in under a local or Microsoft account, and not
> on a workstation that is part of a corporate domain where policies can
> be pushed by a PDA server.

Not sure what a PDA server is. I'm using a local account on a one-user
system, non-networked.

Nice to know that CFA is disabled by default. Onerous indeed when it's
enabled.

> Also, Administrator, or Windows accounts in the Administrators security
> group, do not have all privileges.  There will still be folders to which
> you are not granted full access.  That's why I leave UAC enabled.  If I
> don't have access, UAC notifies me, and UAC will elevate my permissions
> if I request it to do so.  A lot easier than me right-clicking on a
> folder to look under the Security tab to check what all permissions my
> Windows account had on the folder to figure out what to change.

How enabled do you leave it? Just curious.

Thanks for your reply, VanguardLH.

-- 
John C.

Take back Microsoft from India.

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#182763

"John C." <r9jmg0@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Not sure what a PDA server is. I'm using a local account on a one-user
> system, non-networked.

Then I'm guessing you also don't know what is a domain in a corporate
network of workstations.

PDC = Primary Domain Controller (PDA was a typo).  

When logging into a corporate workstation, you are logging into the
corporate domain (although you may have the option to login into a local
account, too, but usually you aren't given the login credentials for
local acocunts since the IT folks are supposed to manage the
workstations).  When logging into a domain, policies get pushed onto
your workstation.  Since all policies are registry entries, and *if* you
were given the login credentials for an admin-level account on your
workstation, you can add a batch script with reg.exe commands to change
those policies.  I had to do that to override the timeout and password
requirement on the screen saver decided by IT for a pushed policy, for a
kiosk workstation that had to always be available to anyone in QA that
needed to use it, but it was in a digitally locked room, so only users
with the code could get at it (me, my manager, his manager, and a backup
person in case the others were out sick, got killed, or moved to a
different job).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_controller_(Windows)

By the way, NEVER log into the Administrator account except in an
emergency.  Don't use it as a working account.  If you need to always
login to an admin-level Windows account (in the Administrators security
group), create your own Windows account with admin privileges.  In fact,
for me, right after installing Windows, I create a secondary
Administrator account called TechSupport, AdminBkup, or some such name
to distinguish from working accounts (admin or restricted).  Sometimes
user profiles get corrupted.  If you have image backups, you can restore
to get your account working again; else, you need a non-corrupted admin
Windows account to make repairs, and that's when you use the
Administrator or other admin-level Windows account that is rarely
touched to prevent its profile getting corrupted.

Windows will create multiple profiles in the registry for backup.
You'll see them under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM listed as ControlSetxxx,
where xxx is a number, like 001, 002, etc.  CurrentControlSet is the
pointer to whichever ControlSetxxx is the default during startup.  If
the current control set gets corrupted, you can try selecting a
different config set during bootup (you need to see the boot menu to
make that choice).  For example, a driver install since they run at ring
0 could cause Windows to hang or crash, and you need to revert to an
earlier config set where the driver did not exist, or was a prior
version.  However, that doesn't always work to get you back a working
Windows.  Image backups are important not just for data recovery, but
also for system recovery.

> Nice to know that CFA is disabled by default. Onerous indeed when it's
> enabled.
> 
> How enabled do you leave [UAC protection]? Just curious.

2nd setting down from top, which is:

  Notify only when apps try to make changes to my computer (default)

That is the default setting.  For example, although I am logged into a
Windows account in the Administrators security group, I will get the UAC
prompt when I open apps with admin priveleges, like a shortcut to
cmd.exe where "Run as administrator" is enabled.  The next setting is:

  Notify me only when apps try to make changes (do not dim my desktop)

I don't see a reduction in UAC prompts, but the prompt itself does not
get focus.  When the other setting, the UAC prompt gets focus, and I
don't have to use the mouse, but just the keyboard (left arrow to switch
from No to Yes, and Enter key) to get past the UAC prompt.

Few programs need admin privileges.  Most times when I'm in a cmd shell,
I'm doing admin functions, and why I have that shortcut run under admin
privs.  I could have another shortcut to run cmd.exe without admin
privs, but I don't as much need a command shell for non-admin functions.
Some programs will attempt system changes, like the registry editor, but
again I'm not often in there.  Other programs, like Word, NNTP client,
e-mail client, web browser, calculator, games, etc, don't need and
really should not run with admin privs.

If you get lots of UAC prompts, perhaps reconsider why those non-system
programs must run with admin privileges.  They probably should not, by
default.  You should be getting UAC prompts when you run a program that
must be ran with admin privs, and that means you are digging into the OS
instead of just using it as a platform to run user-mode software.  The
UAC prompt occurs when doing something to the OS; i.e., admin functions.

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#182087

On 2025-02-07 01:26, John C. wrote:
> 
> I am now giving serious consideration to simply wiping the drive, and
> then installing Windows 7 on it. Then I will install all my drivers and
> programs, do all the tweaking and adjusting and I will know that it will
> all work.
> 
> Then I will downgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10.

As I've had reason to state so often over the last couple of days that 
people are probably getting bored of it, this is what I did around 
2014-15, and it's been the foundation of all my builds since.  My 
penultimate day job before I retired was creating first the W9x and then 
the W2k builds that were used on every PC throughout the UK offices of a 
well known accounting firm, from memory I think that was some teens or 
tens of thousands of PCs.  I'd create the build, put it through 
independent testing, and, when they passed it, the Ghost image file 
would go to our suppliers to be put on every PC of the particular make 
and model it was designed for.

I used this experience to create a webpage describing how to create 
Windows images  -  it's still up there on my site ...

     www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/Windows/WindowsImageBuilding.html

... but is too full of the nitty gritty details of the time to be much 
worth reading now.  However the PRINCIPLES that I followed for W7 were 
exactly the same, the overwhelming ones being:

   + Keep things as simple as possible while still giving you what you 
want in the way of functionality.
     Don't install freebie software supplied with a particular piece of 
hardware unless it is worthwhile in its own right and would still be 
useful in the absence of that hardware, because hardware dies, but, to 
be most useful to you in repaying the time invested creating it, the 
build will need to live on.  The Nero example is one such  -  in its day 
I used it a great deal, but I never use it now, so I installed it for 
W2k/XP, but not for W7, and there's always ImgBurn, which is more 
specific in its functionality and I suspect therefore puts less hooks 
into the system, if I should need something like that.
     Particularly, where possible avoid things that appear in the System 
Tray, things like netcard drivers that install an unnecessary program to 
monitor your net connection, Windows has its own icon that does that 
anyway, or printer drivers that launch a monitoring program that runs 
permanently in the background.  How often do you need actually to print 
anything these days?  Not often, so, if you need a monitoring program at 
all, you only need it while actually printing, not running all the time 
consuming resources.  Scanners are another example of hardware that 
loads a service &/or system tray program, but it may not be easy or 
desirable to do without them
    The other types of resident programs to avoid are things like fast 
start options for software.  Adobe PDF viewer is an example of software 
that used to launch, and perhaps still does, a resident program on boot 
to preload all the libraries necessary to view a PDF, so that, if and 
when you do actually view a PDF, it appears to load very quickly, but, 
unless you really do read a lot of PDFs, all the rest of the time it is 
consuming resources for nothing, thus making the entire OS more sluggish 
than it need be, in particular when loading and drawing the Desktop 
after log on.  Office programs do this as well.  Most probably, you 
should disable such options where possible.
    However, what to do in any one particular case depends on your usage 
and is down to you, I can only give general, not specific, advice.

   + Separate data from OS and programs.  In the firm we used to keep 
all the user's data in a separate folder off the root, so that when a 
user upgraded their PC, we could just copy the folder from the old one 
to the new.  This meant when creating the builds going through all the 
installed software altering the settings to offer default save and open 
locations within this directory structure, rather than in the user's 
profile directory.
     I do the same except that all my data is on a different partition. 
I make the OS partition as small as possible while still allowing the OS 
to run well, about 64-80GB for Windows 7/10/11 depending on the amount 
of RAM in the system (the more RAM, the greater the size of the 
hibernation file C:\hibefil.sys), and having search indexing completely 
disabled as IME it is useless and just wastes runtime resources and 
consuming unjustifiably huge amounts of disk space to accomplish next to 
nothing that is genuinely useful.  This means there is nothing, 
literally nothing, of my own on the OS partition, and I can replace W7 
OS with a W10 or W11 OS without affecting my data at all.

HTHs

-- 

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website: 
www.macfh.co.uk

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#182059

On 06/02/2025 14:46, John C. wrote:
> Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
> associations like in Windows 7?


https://i.imgur.com/HqUShts.png

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#182073

Mr Xi Ji Ping wrote:
> John C. wrote:
>> 
>> Does anybody know of a way make Windows allow programs to set file
>> associations like in Windows 7?
> 
> https://i.imgur.com/HqUShts.png

Thanks, but I already know all of that. In fact, that's exactly the
process I'm trying to avoid having to use.

-- 
John C.

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