Opening files always defaults to Edge

Hi,

Running W10 Pro 64b now for a while and I'm quite satisfied, apart from
one irritating point.
I have set that .htm and .html files are bij default opened by Firefox,
and that .pdf files are by default opened by Acrobat Reader.
And I can't turn my ass or these files are by default opened by Edge
again. And again I set the defaults by FF and Reader, and then again
it's all set to Edge again. It drives me to the Edge. How can I stop
this annoying behaviour?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fokke Nauta

In article , Fokke Nauta
writes

Running W10 Pro 64b now for a while and I'm quite satisfied, apart from
one irritating point.
I have set that .htm and .html files are bij default opened by Firefox, and that
.pdf files are by default opened by Acrobat Reader.
And I can't turn my ass or these files are by default opened by Edge again.
And again I set the defaults by FF and Reader, and then again it's all set to
Edge again. It drives me to the Edge. How can I stop this annoying
behaviour?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Settings, Apps, Default.

Works for me.

Mike

--
Michael Swift We do not regard Englishmen as foreigners.
Kirkheaton We look on them only as rather mad Norwegians.
Yorkshire Halvard Lange

Fokke Nauta wrote:
Hi,

Running W10 Pro 64b now for a while and I'm quite satisfied, apart from
one irritating point.
I have set that .htm and .html files are bij default opened by Firefox,
and that .pdf files are by default opened by Acrobat Reader.
And I can't turn my ass or these files are by default opened by Edge
again. And again I set the defaults by FF and Reader, and then again
it's all set to Edge again. It drives me to the Edge. How can I stop
this annoying behaviour?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fokke Nauta

I've seen comments in the past, that Windows "detects that programs
have been trying to change the defaults in the registry".

They added a feature, a "hash" string, which is supposed to prove
to Windows that Microsoft set the association.

There are plenty of tools built-into Windows 10 to set an association.

*******

Metro applications are likely to use a user-unfriendly string.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.html\UserChoice]
"Hash"="yL9FPZzdBcs="
"ProgId"="AppX4hxtad77fbk3jkkeerkrm0ze94wjf3s9 "

The Win32 ones still have a program name component.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pdf\UserChoice]
"Hash"="xh8KhPWlZL0="
"ProgId"="AcroExch.Document"

There is a tool here for setting the hash.

http://kolbi.cz/blog/?p=346

http://www.kolbi.cz/SetUserFTA_v1.5.zip

SHA256 of SetUserFTA.exe (58,880 bytes)
(6B7DBA337D2490083391623C1E2EAAFEC9C3DCBDE1DCDB2AB FD0E1F0C2BF31B8)

SetUserFTA.exe .pdf AcroExch.Document.DC

The "Hash" is generated as:

hash = Base64(MicrosoftHash(MD5(toLower(extension, sid, progid, regdate, experience))))

where the Microsoft hash reduction function is not stated, and the
experience string constant is also not stated. "regdate" is the timestamp
on the UserChoice registry key (self-referential???).

*******

Associations can be loaded in the forward direction via XML files.
This was done to help IT people get their job done, while
end users can suck it.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/...s-for-it-pros/

Dism.exe /online /import-defaultappassociations:c:\temp\CustomFileAssoc.xml

So you also have the option of playing with that if you
want, to see if it will stop resetting the association.

*******

Summary: If the end-user GUI tools work, then great...
Otherwise, good luck on your secret mission,
the "hunt for a valid Hash" :-)

HTH,
Paul

On 30/04/2018 12:45, Mike Swift wrote:
In article , Fokke Nauta
writes

Running W10 Pro 64b now for a while and I'm quite satisfied, apart from
one irritating point.
I have set that .htm and .html files are bij default opened by
Firefox, and that
.pdf files are by default opened by Acrobat Reader.
And I can't turn my ass or these files are by default opened by Edge
again.
And again I set the defaults by FF and Reader, and then again it's all
set to
Edge again. It drives me to the Edge. How can I stop this annoying
behaviour?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Settings, Apps, Default.

Works for me.

Mike


It didn't for me. Windows always goes back to Edge.

Fokke

On Mon, 30 Apr 2018 11:39:55 +0200, Fokke Nauta
wrote:

Hi,

Running W10 Pro 64b now for a while and I'm quite satisfied, apart from
one irritating point.
I have set that .htm and .html files are bij default opened by Firefox,
and that .pdf files are by default opened by Acrobat Reader.
And I can't turn my ass or these files are by default opened by Edge
again. And again I set the defaults by FF and Reader, and then again
it's all set to Edge again. It drives me to the Edge. How can I stop
this annoying behaviour?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fokke Nauta

Settings - Apps - Default Apps - Choose default apps by file type.

Make sure Edge is not your default browser while you're at it.

If you did all of this and it seems to revert back to Edge, I wonder
if maybe something like a registry cleaner is screwing things up for
you.

On 30/04/2018 18:17, Doomsdrzej wrote:
On Mon, 30 Apr 2018 11:39:55 +0200, Fokke Nauta
wrote:

Hi,

Running W10 Pro 64b now for a while and I'm quite satisfied, apart from
one irritating point.
I have set that .htm and .html files are bij default opened by Firefox,
and that .pdf files are by default opened by Acrobat Reader.
And I can't turn my ass or these files are by default opened by Edge
again. And again I set the defaults by FF and Reader, and then again
it's all set to Edge again. It drives me to the Edge. How can I stop
this annoying behaviour?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fokke Nauta

Settings - Apps - Default Apps - Choose default apps by file type.

Make sure Edge is not your default browser while you're at it.

If you did all of this

Yes!

and it seems to revert back to Edge, I wonder
if maybe something like a registry cleaner is screwing things up for
you.

Never used a thing as such.

Fokke

On 30/04/2018 17:00, Paul wrote:
Fokke Nauta wrote:
Hi,

Running W10 Pro 64b now for a while and I'm quite satisfied, apart
from one irritating point.
I have set that .htm and .html files are bij default opened by
Firefox, and that .pdf files are by default opened by Acrobat Reader.
And I can't turn my ass or these files are by default opened by Edge
again. And again I set the defaults by FF and Reader, and then again
it's all set to Edge again. It drives me to the Edge. How can I stop
this annoying behaviour?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Fokke Nauta

I've seen comments in the past, that Windows "detects that programs
have been trying to change the defaults in the registry".

They added a feature, a "hash" string, which is supposed to prove
to Windows that Microsoft set the association.

There are plenty of tools built-into Windows 10 to set an association.

*******

Metro applications are likely to use a user-unfriendly string.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.html\UserChoice]

"Hash"="yL9FPZzdBcs="
"ProgId"="AppX4hxtad77fbk3jkkeerkrm0ze94wjf3s9 "

The Win32 ones still have a program name component.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pdf\UserChoice]

"Hash"="xh8KhPWlZL0="
"ProgId"="AcroExch.Document"

There is a tool here for setting the hash.

http://kolbi.cz/blog/?p=346

http://www.kolbi.cz/SetUserFTA_v1.5.zip

SHA256 of SetUserFTA.exe (58,880 bytes)
(6B7DBA337D2490083391623C1E2EAAFEC9C3DCBDE1DCDB2AB FD0E1F0C2BF31B8)

SetUserFTA.exe .pdf AcroExch.Document.DC

The "Hash" is generated as:

hash = Base64(MicrosoftHash(MD5(toLower(extension, sid, progid,
regdate, experience))))

where the Microsoft hash reduction function is not stated, and the
experience string constant is also not stated. "regdate" is the timestamp
on the UserChoice registry key (self-referential???).

*******

Associations can be loaded in the forward direction via XML files.
This was done to help IT people get their job done, while
end users can suck it.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/...s-for-it-pros/


Dism.exe /online
/import-defaultappassociations:c:\temp\CustomFileAssoc.xml

So you also have the option of playing with that if you
want, to see if it will stop resetting the association.

*******

Summary: If the end-user GUI tools work, then great...
Otherwise, good luck on your secret mission,
the "hunt for a valid Hash" :-)

HTH,
Paul

Thanks, Paul.

Seems at first sight this is highly complicated :-(
But I'll give it a try.

Fokke