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OpenWith doesn;t work in Vista Ultimate

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9 replies

by torr21

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Hi, I've just reinstalled my Vista Ultimate and now I find that the context menu item "OpenWith" doesn't work. I used to be able to open a file in several different programs, now I don't get anything at all. Is there some way to fix this without having to reinstall everything again? I've been looking for days for a solution.

9 replies

by rob miners

from scratch and are expecting to be able to use programs that haven't been installed?

by torr21

Hi Jacky, not quite. What I used to be able to do was open a mp4 file with several different programs that were installed. All I get now is "OpenWith" in the context menu and nothing else. Thanks for your reply. Cheers.

by rob miners

It could be caused by a mis-behaving shell extension. Try using ShellExView to disable all shell extensions that are displayed in a light shade of red and then, if the problem goes away, enable a few at a time until you find the culprit.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

Edit: to add the shading information.

Keep us informed as to your progress if you require further assistance.

If you think that any of the posts that have been made by all TR Members, have solved or contributed to solving the problem, please Mark them as Helpful so that others may benefit from the outcome. ;) :D

by peconet tietokoneet

Please back up your data first, as well as your registry.

Backup / Restore the Registry

To Backup/Restore the Windows Registry: Windows 9x For XP 2000 click here:
http://www.easydesksoftware.com/news/news4.htm

1. If you are in MSDOS, at the C:\Windows prompt type
2. Attrib -s -r -h C:\Windows\System.dat (press Enter)
3. Attrib -s -r -h C:\Windows\User.dat (press Enter)

To make the backup copies type:

1. copy C:\Windows\System.dat C:\Windows\System.000 (press Enter)
2. copy C:\Windows\User.dat C:\Windows\user.000 (press Enter)

To Restore the Registry

1. copy C:\Windows\System.000 C:\Windows\System.dat (press Enter)
2. copy C:\Windows\User.000 C:\Windows\user.dat (press Enter)

Add "Open With" to all files

You can add "Open With..." to the Right click context menu of all files.This is great for when you have several programs you want to open the same file types with. I use three different text editors so I added it to the ".txt" key.

1. Open RegEdit
2. Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\Shell
3. Add a new Key named "OpenWith" by right clicking the "Shell" Key and selecting new
4. Set the (Default) to "Op&en With..."
5. Add a new Key named "Command" by right clicking the "OpenWith" Key and selecting new
6. Set the (Default) to "C:\Windows\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1", C:\ being your Windows drive. You must enter the "OpenAs_RunDLL %1" exactly this way.

Hope it works for you...

by torr21

Hi, I came across this solution in my searching and tried it but it didn't fix the problem. Thanks for posting it though. Cheers.

by torr21

Hi Jacky, yes..this little program fixed the problem. Not quite sure what the culprit was, maybe just too many things going at once. Disabled several that I know I will never use, and presto..it works like a treat.
So thanks for helping me on the problem. Your assistance is greatly appreciateed.

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