By default PNG images open in Preview. At some point, this has changed on my system so that clicking on a PNG file launches Paintbrush. While that's a really nice app, I'd still like the default to be Preview. How to change it back? (I formulated the question title to be little more generic — how to do this for any file types?)

I'm looking for the easiest, most readily-available way, with no 3rd party tools or going to the command-line. Somewhat surprisingly, System Preferences seems to contain nothing related to file associations.

This beginner question should probably be an easy one... I hope!

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Additional question from Rajesh Vaghela (in an answer; reposting here as comment): "Any programmatic solution for this problem?" – Jonik Oct 13 '10 at 15:01
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1 Answer

up vote 8 down vote accepted
  1. Get Info on the file in Finder (⌘I)
  2. Find the "Open with:" section
  3. Change the application to the one you want
  4. Click "Change All…" to apply the change for all files of the same type.

Info window

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Thanks, this works. Extremely quick reply! :) – Jonik Aug 24 '09 at 20:46
+1 Great explanation – Alex Rozanski Aug 24 '09 at 20:48
Just wondering: during the 3 min 8 secs between me posting the question and you the answer, did you take the screenshot and upload it to imageshack yourself, or did you re-use someone else's pic? ツ – Jonik Aug 24 '09 at 20:59
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I took it myself, cleverly hiding my short username by collapsing the General section. ;) I used the ImageShack uploader that I made myself (based on a widget): box.net/shared/06nnvqa5y5 – jtbandes Aug 24 '09 at 21:13
+1, was just checking how to do this a few minutes ago. – jtimberman Aug 24 '09 at 21:42
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