PolicyPak File Associations Manager can immediately help with this dilemma for Windows 10 machines. You just deployed your application using SCCM, PDQ Deploy or whatever, and set the association, and it worked perfectly in Windows 7. So having a Group Policy-based way to manage File Associations was awesome. Instead, defaults must be registered on a per-user level, which prevents multiple users from overwriting each other’s defaults. However, attempts by an application to modify default association behaviors at a machine level post-installation will be unsuccessful. Installation of a program by a user is typically performed as an elevated process. This restriction is a security feature that prevents a process from acting as an administrator without the administrator’s knowledge. This was / is called “association jacking.” This is detailed in (v=vs.85).aspx. Why would Microsoft make this change for Windows 10 file associations? The answer is: increased security.īecause it was so easy to change (really, just a very quick registry edit) one application could take over another application’s file associations. But because of the true “under the hood” changes in Windows 10, the Group Policy Preferences item simply cannot work. This is called a “Breaking Change.” The UI still makes it look like it will still magically work on Windows 10. There are no plans to update the Group Policy Preferences method to be compatible with Windows 10. It’s also “still broken” with Windows 10. This Group Policy Preferences method worked perfectly well from Windows XP to Windows 8 but stopped working with Windows 8.1. These options will pop up after the user chooses “Open With.” Then you would be presented with the “File Extension” (to fill in), the “Associated Program,” and optionally “Set it as Default,” as seen here. You can use Group Policy Preferences Folder Options | Option with for Windows 7 machines. It is still available within the Microsoft Group Policy Editor on the traversing User Side | Preferences | Folder Options | Open With. Indeed, to manage File Associations for Windows 7, Group Policy Preferences had a specific item preference item type that dynamically set which extensions would open in what applications. If this was so great, why has it changed and why does it no longer work in Windows 10 ?īefore we answer that, let’s stay in Windows 7 land for a bit longer. Managing File Associations with Group Policy Preferences used to be quite easy.Vendors could just make their own associations as they installed software.It was a nice simple method that was easy to understand.Windows 7 stored this information in a simple registry key. Why did this work in Windows 7, and stop working in Windows 8.1 (and is still the same … “not working” way in Windows 10?)Īctually, let’s go back to the past… back to Windows 7. Or, if after you install VLC Media player then want to change file associations, you get a Windows 10 system dialog explaining that you are doing it the wrong way. Opening Wordpad and writing a sentence with mailto: will show that Outlook or Claws Mail isn’t actually the default email program. You will see that it will launch Windows 10’s default Mail application instead of Outlook or Claws Mail when you click on it. You can quickly test this by opening up Wordpad and making a quick one-sentence line with mailto:, as shown below. In this example, a small mail program I use, called “Claws Mail” asks if it could be the MAILTO: protocol.Īfter installing Claws Mail, the program will try to make it the default when opening emails.īut after Claws Mail or Outlook is installed, it is not actually correctly set as the handler for MAILTO: emails. The same problem occurs when you install Outlook or something else to handle email. pdf after the user has installed Acrobat Reader. Instead, Windows 10 Edge is typically the default PDF viewer when you click on a PDF file, or Edge is “recommended,” and the user must make a choice, as seen here.Įdge generally becomes the default when attempting to open a. PDF is not associated with Acrobat Reader. When you install these applications note how Acrobat Reader asks if it can be the default PDF viewer, as seen here.Īdobe Acrobat Reader Setup will ask to be the default PDF viewer. (Or use SCCM, PDQ Deploy or whatever else you use to deploy software to Windows 10.) On Windows 10, hand-install Acrobat Reader, Outlook (or something smaller like Claws Mail), or VLC Media Player. Have you tried to install an application in Windows 10 lately? If you hand-install it, or install it using SCCM, you might get some annoying things you didn’t bargain for.
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