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Friday, January 24, 2014

My files open in the wrong program. What can I do?

This problem is most common with web files (.HTML) or web links. In Windows these will typically open up in Internet Explorer, but you may want them to open up automatically in a different program (like Chrome).

Your computer keeps a list of different file types (identified by their file extension, three invisible letters after the period at the end of a filename) and a list of programs that are installed. Each file is set to open with a specific program (called the file association,) but you can change those settings on your own computer:

1) Find a file that is opening in the "wrong" program
2) Right-click and choose "properties"
3) To the right of "Opens with <program name>," click "choose"
4) Select the program you want to open that type of file (the computer should list any installed programs capable of opening that type.) then click "OK"

Done!