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I somehow have set the default filetype association for a filetype in windows 7. It doesn't appear to be possible to delete it from the "change the file type associated with a file extention" options screen.

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What is your Windows version (XP, Vista ...) ? – harrymc Oct 1 '09 at 15:46
Win7 - edited the question to reflect this. Note that the delete options in the file associations UI don't seem to be available in Win7. – Christothes Oct 2 '09 at 3:16
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5 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

In Explorer, go to Tools | Folder Options | File Types, find the extension you're looking for, and click Delete.

Or, if Delete is grayed out, click Restore (to set it back to the defaults), then Delete.

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This menu is missing from Windows 7. I used Default Programs Editor utility as mentioned in several answers, such as this one: superuser.com/a/294490/38267 – goodeye Dec 11 '11 at 3:32
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up vote 3 down vote accepted

Find the file extension in question under the

*HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts*

key in the registry. Deleting the sub-key with the same name as the extension you want to un-associate will delete the default program association. You'll have to kill and restart explorer.exe for this to take effect.

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I suggest logout/login. Killing explorer means no taskbar or Start button. – harrymc Oct 1 '09 at 15:45
+1 This will be the dirty way to do it. I will always prefer first to try from Folder Options ->File Types Tab -> (find the extension & change it). If it fails then registry is the way to go. – Ganesh R. Oct 1 '09 at 15:46
@harrymc If your explorer.exe crashes, mostly it ill auto restart. Else you can start 'explorer.exe' via Run Prompt or task manager -> Application Tab -> new task -> explorer.exe – Ganesh R. Oct 1 '09 at 15:48
@Christothes: Asked the question & answered it also. :) – Ganesh R. Oct 1 '09 at 15:49
@Ganesh.R: In theory. In practice it can take some time to restart, and imagine the effect this will have on the OP. – harrymc Oct 1 '09 at 17:48
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up vote 1 down vote

Creative Element Power Tools is a collection of productivity tools for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, and Windows Me. One of the file utility is File Type Doctor which allows user right-click any file and select Edit File Type to modify the applications used to open files of that type. Use File Type Doctor to choose default programs, add or remove file types from Explorer’s New menu, and customize files’ context menus.

alt text

More utilities here: Windows Vista File Associations Advanced Editing Management Tools

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Nice, but not free. 45-day trial, $18 registration. FYI. – quack quixote Oct 1 '09 at 21:44
if a program is free, i usually add a footnote to my posts, and sometimes the old shareware motto applies: software worth using is worth paying for :) – Molly7244 Oct 1 '09 at 21:52
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up vote 0 down vote

You can do this from the command line with the ASSOC command. To delete the association for the .XYZ file type just enter:

ASSOC .XYZ=

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This just changes the text of the type description, not the actual program with which that file type will be associated. – raven Oct 1 '09 at 19:55
@raven - correct, this does not affect the default program - it sets how the extension is associated in HKCR – Christothes Oct 2 '09 at 3:17
@raven - You're right. If you the set the file type for a unknown extension with ASSOC it does set the default program. However, removing the associate does not remove the default program. – Dave Webb Oct 2 '09 at 8:22
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up vote 0 down vote

The step 2 was the perfect solution and the only needed to restore the file type association to the default given by Windows 7. So the deleting of the appropriate registry key enforced windows to renew the association either to the unknown file type or to the one windows operating system recognizes and consequently assigns the correct icon. In my case I had by accident assigned the wordpad association to a readyboost type of file with .sfcache file extention. So the icon was messed up but after applied only the step 2 and logged out and relogged in again the windows had assigned the perfect and correct by default icon for the readyboost file type objects. Thanks a lot for your help.

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