Windows 10: "Default app" section no more available in "Open with" popup menu

Hello,Here is the issue:In Windows Explorer, I have an .html file and I make a right click on it.In the menu, I click on "Open with" menu, then "Choose another app" menu.In the opened menu, the section "Default App" is not present and the command button "Always" is hidden, there is only "Just once".Could you help me to retrieve the "Default App" section ?I am under Windows 11 24H2 with build 26100.2894.Remark : for another type of file, all is good: default app section and Always command button are present.Best regardsBernard

:)

 

Can I customize the list of suggest apps in the "Open with" menu?

You can't use it to add additional programs, only to set default programs.

Interestingly for me it shows nothing for text files:








Then if I want to add a portable app like Jarte Plus to open with context menu windows doesn't like it.





It's not present and is near impossible to add even via "look for an app on this PC"

OpenWithAdd to the rescue:




Result:

 

Can I customize the list of suggest apps in the "Open with" menu?

Well, I hope this helps the OP - it took a while. I tried 'Default Program Editor' (DPE) and it did indeed add (or remove) items, but when I tried to specifically add Word to pdf opening, it failed - it went through the motions, but nothing happened. So I started again, playing with settings for opening .doc files. This seemed to work: initially in explorer I had 3 programs appear in the 'default' list that pops up on a rt-click>open-with:



and this is what the relevant bit of the Registry showed:



Don't ask me why just 3 of those 8 (a to h) programs show up (maybe the 'instant' list is limited to three? - no, see later) - anyway, I used DPE to remove Wordpad from the list: when saving the edit as a REG file, this is what I got:

Code:

and the result in Explorer was:



and the registry now shows:



Note how item 'g' from the list has been removed (it seems there is no issue with having a letter missing). I then messed about trying to open a .doc file with various other programs, and they all started to appear in the 'instant' list:




So I thought 'well, that is easy - just open a pdf once in Word and it should appear'. So back to trying to open PDFs: but however many times I tried, Word would never appear.



even though there were any number of entries in the Registry 'Open With' list, including Word:



So what did DPE make of this - well, it showed some of the entries:



Although Word is shown, it doesn't appear on a rt-click. Its entry can be removed, but that doesn't help. So my attention was drawn to the existence of another folder below 'OpenWithList', namely 'OpenWithProgids', and that contained a specific ref to Sumatra (my preferred program for PDFs). Looking back at the same entry for .docx, I found this:



so I added an identical Word.Document.12 ref to the list for PDFs:



I think IrfanView is there as it got added during my experiments! I now get this in Explorer:


Hurrah! I then tried to use DPE to remove the redundant entries, and got this as a .REG file:
Code:

But when i merge that with the registry, the IrfanView item does not get deleted:



and as seen in the registry:



so I deleted it by hand, and at last have the entries I (or rather, the OP) want:




Note that my manually added reg entry is of type Binary', as there seems to be no way to add a value of type 'None'.

So it seems that DPE cannot cope with entries in the 'Progids' list, and something makes some programs fall into that list, rather than the 'openwithlist'. I am sorry for any typos above, or pictures in the wrong place - can't be bothered to check it too thoroughly. Hope it helps someone!

atb, Martin

 

Lost default photo viewer after profile rebuild

Thanks Brink. I've tried those steps before i started searching Google. After the profile rebuild i don't have the Photo app listed to choose to make it default in either the system settings for default apps or the Open With option.

I can't even find it doing a search. Seems to have been removed somehow with the profile rebuild, which doesn't make sense.

Might be helpful to list what i've done I've done the open with check, the choose default program in the system menu, tried that in device manager default programs also. I've checked the programs and features Turn windows features on/off and it's not listed there (never thought it was but that was a suggestion), searched the MS Store, it's not listed there either.

I don't like playing in the registry unless i have defined steps and haven't found anything for this yet, just the Win7 version like in my OP.