Also, there are many forum reports of Windows 10 updates seeming to mess up default programs and assign them (or is it just the displayed icons?) to MS Word, Excel etc. Guess what - Windows 10 is different and does not work properly for me. See Differences between Writer and MS Word files for why you should always work in and save files as.

This overrides the general setting above. rtf file - and specify which program (say Notepad) should open that file type. This is the best approach to follow.Īssociate a file type or protocol with a program allows you to select a file type - eg a. You can now choose Set your default programs which allows you to choose a program like AOO and give the program all (or just some) of its default file types. You can use this list to quickly set the default application for all the relevant file types.īobban Volunteer Posts: 535 Joined: Sat 3:12 pm Location: Australia → From here you can find a particular file type such as 'doc', and press 'Change' and you will be presented with the same dialog as in step 1.

The other option is to open Windows Explorer and then select:.

You can repeat this process for various file types (e.g. → Select 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file', and press OK. You should be able to find it, but if you can't you can press 'Browse' and search for the program's main executable file. → From the dialog box that pops up select the program you want to make the default application (if it was a doc file then select swriter if you want OpenOffice to handle these files or Microsoft Word if you prefer that). Select 'Open With.', then 'Choose Program.'.

The easiest method is to simply right click on a file that you want to open.

Now find OpenOffice or Microsoft Office in the list and after selecting the appropriate one you can either choose 'Set this program as default' to make it the default application for all file types it can handle in one fell swoop, or 'Choose defaults for this program' to quickly pick the file types you would like this program to handle.

Start button->Control Panel->Programs->Default Programs->Set your default programs It's not often I have good things to say about Vista, but I am pleased to announce that this is definitely one occasion where it can make life easier. See this post below: Setting the default program under Mac OS.įor Vista, in addition to the XP methods, there is also another way. See this post below: Setting the default program (Windows 7 and following). If you have any comments, please post in: Comments on Setting the default program. Here are the instructions to set the application to be used to open your files.

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