win8 Remove file association in Win 8

[Ice_Blue]

I do not want a certain file extension to be associated with any program whatever.

In XP, this used to be easy a pie using Explorer.

In Vista and 7, I used a third party utility, but this no longer works under 8, and as much as I've Googled, I cannot find a workable solution to this problem.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why they removed this feature.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[-Himanshu-]

Yeah, I tried doing this when I associated some program to .bin by mistake but couldn't remove it. I recalled that there used to be some option in XP. But couldn't see any option in 8. Here is how I solved it.

Create any file anywhere, I just made a .txt on desktop. Rename it to something.exe. Now right click on any file of the extension whose association you want to remove, go to Properties. Click the Change... button in the "Opens With" option. It will show the current program and there will be "More Options" link, click it. A list will come up, click the "Look for another app on PC" link at bottom. Browse to your something.exe and associate the extension with it. Hit Apply and OK. Now just go delete that something.exe you created and now your extension has no associated application.

[HawkMan]

What's so hard about the default programs utility in 7 and 8...

[-Himanshu-]

What's so hard about the default programs utility in 7 and 8...

You can only change the program that is associated with an extension, you can't delete an entry from there. OP wants to have no program associated with a certain extension.

[HawkMan]

Not in front of my computer right now, but yes, I'm pretty, as in100% sure you can, as I've done it.

[-Himanshu-]

Not in front of my computer right now, but yes, I'm pretty, as in100% sure you can, as I've done it.

Well, I tried right clicking and there is no menu. And delete button doesn't work. If there is any other way, please tell because the way I posted is a little long.

[HawkMan]

Win key, default(click default apps, or most likely enter), at this point you're on the standard screen of default programs where you can't change much, from there you have the app settings, they're fairly useless as it won't show all apps, but there's also an area to lst all the registered file types, where you can change or delete their association.

[-Himanshu-]

Win key, default(click default apps, or most likely enter), at this point you're on the standard screen of default programs where you can't change much, from there you have the app settings, they're fairly useless as it won't show all apps, but there's also an area to lst all the registered file types, where you can change or delete their association.

Yeah, that is the screen I am talking about. Control Panel -> Default Programs -> Set Associations. It lists all the extensions and their associated programs. It lets you change the entries, but there doesn't seem to be a way to delete an entry.

[grayscale]

Win key, default(click default apps, or most likely enter), at this point you're on the standard screen of default programs where you can't change much, from there you have the app settings, they're fairly useless as it won't show all apps, but there's also an area to lst all the registered file types, where you can change or delete their association.

Is this it? There is no option to remove file associations, though.

[-Himanshu-]

^ Yes, that's the screen I was talking about. And as I said, there is no option for removing the entries.

[Buendia]

Try FileTypesMan from www.nirsoft.net

[Ice_Blue]

Yeah, I tried doing this when I associated some program to .bin by mistake but couldn't remove it. I recalled that there used to be some option in XP. But couldn't see any option in 8. Here is how I solved it.

[snip]

Thank You.

Your solution worked a treat.

@Hawkman:

As Himanshu and Grayscale stated, there is no option in that applet to REMOVE an association completely, just change it to something else.

Try FileTypesMan from www.nirsoft.net

Thanks. Will check it out.

[grayscale]

I also use FileTypesMan on changing the icons of the file types. Good app.

[Ice_Blue]

I also use FileTypesMan on changing the icons of the file types. Good app.

Indeed. I tried it out a little while ago. Definitely a keeper.

[AngelGraves13]

Hmm...odd.

[bakla89]

Thank you -Himanshu-

I registered to this forum just to say to you that I solve my problem with your great idea!

Thank you!

You are a genius!

[c.grz]

A little late to the party but:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/17717edb-daa2-4e7f-adb2-c277d4619d46

[-Himanshu-]

Thank you -Himanshu-

I registered to this forum just to say to you that I solve my problem with your great idea!

Thank you!

You are a genius!

You are welcome, man! Appreciate that you registered just to tell me that. Hope to see you in forums in future. :)

[Prem Ananth C]

Yeah, I tried doing this when I associated some program to .bin by mistake but couldn't remove it. I recalled that there used to be some option in XP. But couldn't see any option in 8. Here is how I solved it.

Create any file anywhere, I just made a .txt on desktop. Rename it to something.exe. Now right click on any file of the extension whose association you want to remove, go to Properties. Click the Change... button in the "Opens With" option. It will show the current program and there will be "More Options" link, click it. A list will come up, click the "Look for another app on PC" link at bottom. Browse to your something.exe and associate the extension with it. Hit Apply and OK. Now just go delete that something.exe you created and now your extension has no associated application.

Thanks for this post. Excellent it worked after a long struggle of trying other methods. :rolleyes: