In win XP the" Open with" option is not working why?

Question

When I try to open a file with a specific program, I click right on the mouse to have the "open with..." option but it doesn't give me the choices, it always opens it immediately with Notepad . And that is for all file types...Mp3, Txt, Mpeg etc... Why is that? and how can it be fixed ? Thanks

If I double-click on a file, it opens it with the default program. Ie a mp3 might open with Winamp. But if I want to change the software used to open a file, I am supposed to get the "open with" and "Choose Program". At that moment when I click on "Choose program" it never shows the choices, it opens the file with Notepad..Annoying!

Answer 1

right click >properties>change

Answer 2

Wow, I have no idea what would cause that but it sounds really annoying.

This page has a bunch of file association fixes:
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

Some programs like Winamp, or Windows Media Player, will set file associations when they're installed, or have an option in their preferences to re-claim file association.

To change other extensions by hand,
Use Windows Explorer to locate a the file with broken associations. Click once to highlight it.
From the menu bar, choose Tools, Folder Options
In the Options dialog box, click the File Types tab.
Find the extension or file type you want to fix and click it once to highlight it, you should see Opens with: and the program that will open it, click Change next to it and find the application that will view or run it properly.

Answer 3

Left click once on the icon to highlight the document you want to open and while holding down the shift key right click on the icon....the open with dialog should be there for you to select which program you wish to use if you wish to always have a particular program associated with a particular file type check the always use this program........Hope this helps

Answer 4

you can try to change the default program that open's the extention, example make windows media player your default mp3 player,
just go to "my computer" or any folder, click "tools" on the top bar, then click "folder option" then under the folder option screen click "file types" tab.
that will give you all the file types the computer recognize and the default program that opens them, you can click on whichever file type you want then click change to use a different program to open them.

Answer 5

what happens if you just double click the file?

Answer 6

I have had to hold down Ctrl & right click before

Answer 7

If your computer is not working properly while you are working on it, it could be a problem with device drivers, hardware or software.
Detailed instructions at http://tinyurl.com/yk5zpr