Windows 10: Export and Import Default App Associations for New Users in Windows

Can I disable that update after I remove it? So it won't break the .xml file?

 

These are the only updates I have got. I didn't have KB3135173

 

These are the last big updates that happened. Which one should I Uninstall if it's possible?

 

In that case, I'm not sure other than merging the .reg file in the new account to stop the message.

 

Okay well if there ever is a fix to this I will be checking this thread out periodically. Thanks for the try Brink.

 

I have figured out a temporary fix that I am using on the staff's computers in my school district which the defaultapps.xml file to work. I needed this badly because our email only works with IE. VLC player is just a personal favorite for me, and Adobe Reader DC allows us to print PDF files through our paper tracking software in our network.

I will share below:

Must NOT have installed update "Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, version 1511, 10586"
If you have already downloaded this update these steps will NOT work.

1. Make sure you follow the correct steps that Brink has provided.

1. I have simply just hidden the update using the wushowhide.digcab
Download here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930

2. Run the software package you have just installed

3. Click "Next"

4. Click "Hide updates"

5. Find "Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, version 1511, 10586" and click the box to apply the checkmark

6. Click "Next"

7. All done, now Windows Update will continue to update, but will not update to the "Windows 10 Pro, version 1511, 10586" that will break the Default Apps .xml file you have just created.

I have used this .xml file and program under the built-in Administrator account and Windows Update can not find the update to install it which allows the defaultsapps.xml file you created using this tutorial working.

Hope this helps!

 

Hello TenForums *Smile
I've been searching for a while on the forum, and many other forums, and Google, and Microsoft support... Nothing works for me : here I post.

I would like to associate default apps for several extensions with only scripts or registry hacks (which I can put in a .bat script). But I don't want to do it with DISM tools : it's not for new install or new user, but for the current user.

I found several articles about the new "Hash" value under the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\xxx\UserChoice" key, and about the restricted autorisations of this key. It's very annoying because we can't change the default program without the hash algorithm by Microsoft.

So theese articles explained a way to hack this while running on a Windows server for entreprise deployment, or using Group policy... But I'm not a system administrator nor a IT engineer, and none of the proposition I've read works on my Windows 10 64bits Family edition...
I tried to modify things in registry, with the assoc/ftype commands in cmd, and with .xml files in dism method... Nothing works and I can't set AdobeReaderDC instead of Edge for reading .pdf files. The UserChoice value seems to be stroger and it always pop back with this Hash value, and the Edge ID.

Can anyone help me about it ? If I'm not clear enough, just ask. *Smile Moreover, English is not my native language.

Here are the articles I found :
Posted on Ardamis by Olivier Baty on 2015-12-01
Posted on HTG Blog by James Rankin on 2016-05-27
Posted on CitrixIRC by Ryan Gallier on 2016-04-12

Thank you *Smile

 

Is there a way to save & restore file associations to my own account?

 

Hello WaterCat,

I haven't seen a method that still works so far. Hopefully someone may know of a confirmed current method. *Sad

 

ARGH! I read all the way to here hoping upon hope that there HAD to be a way to fix this! I have one of our owners who has Windows Pro on her system and every update puts EDGE back as default PDF and Default Browser. When set that way, she gets a lot of legal pdf files that wont open until Browser is set back to Chrome and PDF set to Acrobat DC. Last time (Today!) something also messed up Groove for Mu3 files and it was stuck in a loop until i set GROOVE back to all its defaults manually.

I cant believe MS would leave something this much of a Nuisance in Windows Pro with No Way to save your own Preferences such that they can be restored.

She can't handle manually editing herself and has to cal me every time for a remote session. Is there no way to create a batch or script to change just these two things? browser and Pdf file to use the preferred programs?

 

*Sad
Help!
I was able to solve most of the problems using a VBS script
The original wasn't my work. It was made for Chrome but I modified it to add Acrobat
The last problem is Outlook. Due to naming conventions outlook%202016 will not work
but it has to represent "outlook 2016" in the script in order to work properly
Any ideas on how to fix this? I am sure it is easy and i will find it eventually but....
here is the part that works. I would think that this can be added to for as many programs as needed is done properly
enter copied code for each program after the line
WshShell.SendKeys " "
I am sure you can see where it repeats for adobe.
By the way, Adobe MUST come after Chrome in order for things to work right.
Many Thanks to the original posted on Super User :
https://superuser.com/questions/1069...ser-windows-10

Code: Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WshShell.Run "%windir%\system32\control.exe /name Microsoft.DefaultPrograms /page pageDefaultProgram\pageAdvancedSettings? pszAppName=google%20chrome" WScript.Sleep 1200 WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WshShell.SendKeys " " WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WshShell.SendKeys " " Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WshShell.Run "%windir%\system32\control.exe /name Microsoft.DefaultPrograms /page pageDefaultProgram\pageAdvancedSettings? pszAppName=adobe%20acrobat%20reader%20dc" WScript.Sleep 1200 WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WshShell.SendKeys " " WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WshShell.SendKeys "{TAB}" WshShell.SendKeys " " WScript.Quit[/quote]

 

[/quote]
I just went down this exact path
The appRegName is specified in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (orHKEY_CURRENT_USER)\SOFTWARE\RegisteredApplications

Outlook 2016 is registered as outlook.application.2016 (I initially thought the %202016 was causing issues.. but percent-encoding only accepts 2 characters as input.. so the app name had to be incorrect.)

The command you want to add for outlook 2016 will be WshShell.Run "%windir%\system32\control.exe /name Microsoft.DefaultPrograms /page pageDefaultProgram\pageAdvancedSettings?pszAppName=outlook.application.16"

 

^
Restoring defaults is very useful, because the XML file(s) list all sorts of different settings, such as:
Code: <Association Identifier=".htm" ProgId="FirefoxHTML" ApplicationName="Firefox" /> <Association Identifier=".html" ProgId="FirefoxHTML" ApplicationName="Firefox" />[/quote] Code: <Association Identifier="http" ProgId="FirefoxURL-308046B0AF4A39CB" ApplicationName="Firefox" /> <Association Identifier="https" ProgId="FirefoxURL-308046B0AF4A39CB" ApplicationName="Firefox" />[/quote] &
For a novice, it can be difficult to understand why ProgId is labeled different, in all sorts of ways, heh. :-/

P.S. Btw., Windows Environment Variables (for some, strange, reason!) are an elusive bunch. After much searching, I was finally able to come up with a couple of URLs @
Code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_variable[/quote] Code: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...usmt-recognized-environment-variables[/quote]

 

doesn't work on win 10

Code: Error: DISM DISM Assoc Provider: PID=8456 TID=236 Failed to export the user associations from the registry. - CAssocManager::ExportAppAssoc(hr:0x80004002) Error: DISM DISM Assoc Provider: PID=8456 TID=236 Failed to export the user associations. - CAssocManager:rocessCmdLine_ExportAppAssoc(hr:0x80004002) Error: DISM DISM Assoc Provider: PID=8456 TID=236 Failed while processing command export-defaultappassociations. - CAssocManager::ExecuteCmdLine(hr:0x80004002) [/quote]

 

Hello verwijs, *Smile

The method in the tutorial still works for me in Windows 10 build 17604.

Please keep in mind, that this only gets applied to "new" user accounts when created afterwards.