Windows – tool for managing file extensions and their respective program command lines

command linefile associationwindows 8windows-registry

I'm trying to associate .appx files with a utility I wrote which needs a command line similar to appinstaller --install-only --force path\to\appxfile.appx. It also must run as an administrator

I tried looking into the registry and editing it, but I can't quite figure it out. What I've done so far is just use the built-in explorer association to associate with the file. This works and also pops up a UAC prompt as it is suppose to, but my program doesn't receive the --install-only --force command line bit

Are there any tools for Windows 8 to manage file associations, or an easy manual way to do it?

Best Answer

Windows 7 had two commands, ftype and assoc. I assume Windows 8 still has them (can't quite check right now).

ftype is used to associate a file type name (?) with a command string, e.g. ftype WinAppPackage=appinstaller --install-only --force %1

assoc is used to associate a file extension with the name, e.g. assoc .appx=WinAppPackage

Alternatively, you could link the file extension to a batch file using the Windows 8 GUI (Open With...). The batch file could contain the following:

appinstaller --install-only --force %1

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I have the same problem on Windows 10. I solved it by following the steps below.

run regedit with admin privilege. on Windows 10, open any Explorer window (i.e., file folder), press 'Alt-F S A' (without the quote nor the spaces), and PowerShell window will open. type 'regedit', then return. the regedit window will open.
go to \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft.
search for '.bat', specifying that whole field must be the same. on my computer it happens to be at: \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts.bat
verify that there is a 'UserChoice', which specifies the editor or whatever you specified.
remove 'UserChoice'.
exit regedit.

Now double click on any .bat file and it should run.

I did not need to restart my PC, which runs Windows 10.

Windows – Command Prompt change file icon

You can to do this very easily with the right tools in the windows console, or write a BAT program to do this for you.

First, you need to find the association value.

ECHO WHAT ASSOC FILE ICON ARE WE EDITING? 
SET /P VAR=

Next, you need provide the icon file path

ECHO WHERE IS THE ICON LOCATED? 
SET /P VAR2=

Finally, you can write a script to edit this.

That would look like:

echo Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 >>tmp.reg
echo [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\%var%\DefaultIcon\] >>tmp.reg
echo "(Default)"="%var2%" >>tmp.reg

than you can run the file with

start tmp.reg

Best Answer

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