{"id":48471,"date":"2014-06-03T22:43:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T22:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=48471"},"modified":"2014-06-03T22:43:20","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T22:43:20","slug":"windows-open-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/windows-open-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows ‘Open With’ Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/br><\/p>\n

When opening a file that Windows doesn’t recognize – use caution when choosing how to open the file by default.
–PC Pitstop.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

Windows ‘Open With’ Trap<\/h3>\n

By Terry Stockdale for TerrysComputerTips.com<\/p>\n

Windows has a great feature for handling unknown files \u2014 or even files that it does recognize.<\/p>\n

When you right-click on the file, you can pick Open. If Windows has a program associated with that the file\u2019s filename extension (e.g., .xlsx), it will open the appropriate program (e.g., Excel) and then open the file in the program.<\/p>\n

But, if it doesn\u2019t have an associated program for a file, you can still open the file in several ways.<\/p>\n

First, if you know the program you want to use, you can open the program first, and then use it\u2019s internal functions (usually File, Open) to open the data file.<\/p>\n

Second, you often can drag the data file onto the program icon, assuming you can see both at the same time.<\/p>\n

The neat option is to right-click on the data file and select Open With\u2026 The resulting dialog box looks very different in Windows 8 versus the earlier versions of Windows, but the same basic functions are there.<\/p>\n

Windows will open a dialog box and allow you to pick among the programs that it knows will open that type of file. There\u2019s even a button (or link, in the case of Windows 8) to browse for the program you want to use, if it\u2019s not one of the programs that Windows offers.<\/p>\n

All is well and good with this last approach \u2014 except that there is one ugly trap that is set by default.<\/p>\n

Article continued here<\/a><\/p>\n

This post is excerpted with the permission of Terry’s Computer Tips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When opening a file that Windows doesn’t recognize – use caution when choosing how to open the file by default.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":48475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4249],"tags":[3970],"class_list":["post-48471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-terrys-computer-tips","tag-windows-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nWindows 'Open With' Trap<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Windows 'Open With' Trap - 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