This is the problem: every time I reinstall windows, I spend several weeks afterwards setting it up. Nowadays, most settings (files) can be copied, so it's a little faster than it used to be. But one things that annoys me greatly is all those text files of various extensions (.txt, .dat, .tab, .prn, ….) for which in that period I'll have to "Open with …" and "Always use this …".
Is there a way to copy current file associations and then from that backup copy to re-use the ones that are currently in the new windows installation ?
Or, another approach, is there a way to associate some editor (let's say, vim, which will open pretty much anything) to all text files (anything non binary, actually) ?
All ideas on the subject welcome.
And happy New Year to all.
Best Answer
File associations are stored in
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTin the registry. You can back up your currentHKEY_CLASSES_ROOTkey from the registry by right clicking on it and selecting Export. If you export as a.regfile, you can merge them later on (rather than overwriting). Merging this to your new registry will add all of your old file associations to the new machine. The only problem is, if you don't have the software installed which handled the file on your old machine, it won't work on the new machine obviously.FileAsoc can help you with your second request.