Always use the selected program, always greyed out

Question

This one is driving me nuts, I'm trying to change the default program for sln files but for some reason the "always use the selected version" is always greyed out. How do I get that little grey box ungrey.

Where have I gone wrong, and how do I fix this?

Answer 1

Assuming you are logged in as Admin, first thing to check is the Windows Registry.

1. Open Registry Editor (Start > Run > regedit) and navigate to

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer

2. In the right side of the screen double click on "NoFileAssociate".

3. Change the value of "NoFileAssociate" from 1 to 0.

4. Now navigate to

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer

5. Repeat steps 2 and 3.

6. Close "regedit" and reboot your machine.

If the above procedure doesn't work for you (or if you already have "NoFileAssociate" values as 0), reboot in safe mode and change a filetype to be opened with a default program (or right-click and select "open with" for that file type, and check if the box is still grayed out or not) and hit OK. In the next reboot, the issue should be fixed.

Answer 2

Check If you've unticked the hide file extensions for known file types In the folder options. You may have this unticked and when renaming a file you also removed Its extension.If you know the file type and add the extension (eg .doc for word) the option shouldn't be greyed out anymore.