When I open text documents, they immediately print?

Question

Every time I open a text (.txt) document on my PC (Windows 7 Ultimate x64), it immediately begins printing on my default printer.

What is happening and how do I turn it off?

Answer 1

Perhaps you have something like a /p in the file association since running notepad /p filename.txt will immediately print the file on the default printer.

C:\>assoc .txt
.txt=txtfile

C:\>ftype txtfile
txtfile=%SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE %1

Of course this depends on exactly how you "open a text (.txt) document", For example, if you mean you run MS Word and use it's File, Open dialogue, you probably have a different problem.

---

EDIT

assoc and ftype provide an incomplete means of editing registry entries. My PC has under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes

\txtfile\shell\open\command    %SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.exe %1"
\txtfile\shell\print\command   %SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.exe /p %1"

(The key name and type are (Default) and REG_EXPAND_SZ respectively.)

There may have been some incorrect values (or missing entries) that cause the described problem.

Using ftype and assoc to attempt to correct this obviously carries fewer risks than editing the registry directly.

Answer 2

Delete this key from the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\txtfile\

Right click on a .txt file, choose Open With > Notepad. All will be okay.

Answer 3

Go to Control Panel (icon view) Default Programs, then click "associate a file type or protocol with a program"

Scroll down to .txt , it should be associated with Notepad, is it?

If it is not, double click it and select Notepad

.

Answer 4

I had the same problem on my home PC (what's going on!?) and the FTYPE command that RedGrittyBrick suggested did not work this time. I had to modify the registry manually. I had to modify the type of the registry key using the command line.

reg.exe add <key> /ve /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "<value>"