I get questions quite often about programs hijacking files so they open with the wrong program.  I get it so often that when Ivan S. emailed me about this several weeks ago I thought I should revisit it here. 

Ivan said that in the past all of his .jpg files opened in Internet Explorer and now the open in Microsoft Word.  By-the-way, JPG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the faction that developed that particular photographic digital format.  Photographs taken digitally are most often in the JPG (or JPEG) format.

His problem is when he double clicks a JPG file he wants them to open in Internet Explorer, which they did until just recently.  I asked if he just recently installed or upgraded Microsoft Office.  He explained that he had recently installed the newest version of Office.  Not to get off topic here, but MS Office 2007 is excellent although it will take a little getting used to.

What happened? It used to work the way he was comfortable with and now it doesn’t.

Well, programs, like some people we know, like to be in control.  When you install some programs they associate themselves with different file formats or hijack those files to only open with them. 

For instance, when he installed the Office software it apparently set itself up as the default program that opens JPG files and most likely GIF files too (Graphic Interchange Format, another graphic format).  Before that the honor had been given to Internet Explorer. 

Here is the easiest way to correct or change file associations so that your hijacked files will open in the program in which you want them to open, rather than where the programmers would like them to open.

Find one of the file types anywhere on your computer.  Hover over the offending file and right click. 

Scroll down to “Open with” and from the list click on “Choose Program…”.  In the next window find the program you want to start opening this type of file and click it to select it.  (Internet Explorer in Ivan’s case.) 

This next step is very important!  Don’t forget to click the checkbox labeled, “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.”  If you forget that part it will only open the way you want it to this one time.  Finally, click OK and it will open in the correct program.

Now it will continue to open how you want it to – until the next sneaky program takes control back.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 11:27 pm and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.