Do you know what file type association is? Do you know how to remove file association Windows 10 and how to restore it? Don’t worry. You can get the answers in this article from MiniTool Partition Wizard.
What Is File Type Association?
A file association associates a file with a specific application that is able to open the file. Similarly, a file type association associates a type of files with a corresponding application. The file type is commonly determined by the filename extension. For example, the .docx files may be associated with Microsoft Word.
A single file extension might have more than one association for performing different actions. Specifically speaking, an application might be associated with a file extension to open this type of files, but another program might also be associated to open and edit the files.
File type association is very helpful, but it might get corrupted. As a result, a file will be opened with another application that is not suitable. In this case, you should remove file type associations for the file to stop opening the file with the associated app by default.
Related article: How To Set Default Programs/Apps In Windows 10
How to Remove File Association Windows 10
To remove file type association in Windows 10, you can go to modify Windows Registry. Here is a simple guide and you can refer to it to remove file type association of the file extension you want.
Step 1: Press Windows + R to open Run window.
Step 2: Input regedit and click OK button to launch Registry Editor.
Step 3: Copy-paste the following path to the address bar and press Enter: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts.
Step 4: Under FileExts key, find the file extension you want to remove file association for. Right-click it and choose Delete.
Step 5: Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
Once it’s done, this type of file will not be opened with the default application and you can choose another program to associate as your needs.
How to Restore File Type Associations
Commonly, users might change the file type associations according to their preferences. But sometimes, you might want to restore the default file type association for certain reasons. Here are 2 options available to restore file associations.
Option 1: Via Windows Settings
The easiest method to restore file type association is to reset it. You can follow the steps below to make it.
Step 1: Press Windows + I to open Windows Settings.
Step 2: Choose Apps category and click Default apps section in the left pane.
Step 3: In the right pane, click the Reset button to reset to the Microsoft recommended defaults.
Option 2: Via DISM Tool
If the file type association on your computer is messed up, you can make use of another PC where the association has no problems. To do that, you need to prepare a USB drive and follow the steps below.
Step 1: On a working computer, open Command Prompt as administrator.
Step 2: Input the following command line and press Enter key: dism /online /Export-DefaultAppAssociations:”%UserProfile%\Desktop\DefaultAppAssociations.xml”. This will export the default file association of the computer and create a .xml file on the desktop.
Step 3: Now, connect the prepared USB drive to the computer and copy the created file to it. Then, disconnect the USB drive and connect it to your problematic PC and move the file to the desktop.
Step 4: Run Command Prompt as administrator on this PC. Type the following command and press Enter: dism /online /Import-DefaultAppAssociations:”%UserProfile%\Desktop\MyDefaultAppAssociations.xml“
After that, restart your system and the file type association in your PC should be restored successfully.
See also: Fixed – This File Does Not Have a Program Associated with It