File Type Associations in Vista

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Anyone upgrading from XP to Vista may be wondering what happened to the file-type association menu option that used to be in the Windows Explorer.

For example, say that *.TXT files are currently associated with NotePad as the default editor, but you want to change them to be associated with WordPad, Textpad, NotePad++, or whatever your favorite editor may be. In XP, such associations were managed via the Windows Explorer under Tools >> Folder Options… >> File Types.

In Vista, the UI for managing file associations, together with controls for a number of other functions including the AutoPlay options, have been centralized and relocated to the Windows Start menu.

They can be found under the menu selection of “Default Programsâ€￾ (which is an unfortunately ambiguous name, and should not be confused with Startup programs).