"Open With" dialog ignores my selection

I am running Windows 7 x64. I have a file type that I want to associate with Microsoft Access 2003.

I right-click on the file and select Open With->Choose Default program. In the "Open With" dialog, I select the browse button. I choose Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office11\msaccess.exe and press "Open".

I end up back at the "Open With" dialog, but nothing has changed. Access is not listed as a program to use to open the file with. The original program (Adobe Acrobat) that is associated with this program is still selected.

Any tips on getting this association to work?

Solution 1:

The cause is most likely a quirk in the registry that slipped in for some unknown reason.

Make sure the key value in the following location contains the correct path:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\YOURFILE.EXE\shell\open\command

Search for the application name and the file extension in the registry to see if other entries are possibly corrupted as well.

Solution 2:

It is a very simple problem, actually. It happens because Windows uses associations based solely on the base executable name of the program.

Whenever you associate a program with an extension, the program will be present on the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications list, where the key names are the base names of the executables (e.g., MSACCESS.EXE and AcroRD32.exe). You can’t associate another program with a file extension if it has the same executable name. What happened is that you probably moved the software to another location (you can see it happens mostly with portable software versions) and when you try to point to it, Windows will see that the name is already registered and instead will try to use the registered path. When it can’t find that, it silently ignores the error and presents the dialog back with no changes whatsoever.

The solution is equally simple: just correct or delete the HKCR\Applications\YourAppName.exe key and try again.  It will work.