File Type Associations in Vista

Anyone upgrading from XP to Vista may be wondering what happened to the file-type association menu option that used to be in the Windows Explorer. For example, say that *.TXT files are currently associated with NotePad as the default editor, but you want to change them to be associated with WordPad, Textpad, NotePad++, or whatever your favorite editor may be. In XP, such associations were managed via the Windows Explorer under Tools >> Folder Options… >> File Types.

In Vista, the UI for managing file associations, together with controls for a number of other functions including the AutoPlay options, have been centralized and relocated to the Windows Start menu. They can be found under the menu selection of “Default Programs” (which is an unfortunately ambiguous name, and should not be confused with Startup programs).