How to associate a certain file type for my application?

Question

How to associate a certain file type for my application?

Rohan Pande 445

Hi,

I have an application that is being purely written in C++ and I want to associate a file type of a certain extension like ('.xyz').

Requirement is that if I double click on a '.xyz' file if my application is available, it should launch my application irrespective my application is running or not.

I have looked through some documentation, but I wasn't understanding much about it. There it was talking about ProgIDs. I am new to this so couldn't understand it properly and wasn't able to try it out.

Reference links that I have gone through:

Can someone help me in this? Thanks in advance.

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Answer 1

Castorix31 90,686

I don't have Windows 11, but on Windows 10 a simple way is with

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xyz\shell\open\command

with for example, for a test :

"E:\Sources\Test7\Debug\test7.exe" "%1"

=>

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Rohan Pande 445 Reputation points

2023-12-15T03:36:40.4266667+00:00

This works even on Windows 11. Thanks @Castorix31 Any idea about the documentation by Microsoft regarding this? I want to try whether multiple applications can be associated with same extension.
Rohan Pande 445 Reputation points

2023-12-15T05:21:56.72+00:00

@Castorix31 But for excel like applications there is nothing as such that we have tried here. How is that working?
Castorix31 90,686 Reputation points

2023-12-15T08:06:36.55+00:00

.xlsm is associated with Excel.SheetMacroEnabled.12

which also has

shell\open\command
Rohan Pande 445 Reputation points

2023-12-15T08:26:29.5633333+00:00

In the screen shot that I have pasted, .xlsx, .xlsm are showing something Persistent handler, ShellEx which contains some generated values. I can't see something as shell\open\command. How are these generated values coming? Do we need to do something?
Castorix31 90,686 Reputation points

2023-12-15T09:37:54.05+00:00

Handlers are explained in MSDN, for example at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/search/-search-ifilter-registering-filters
Rohan Pande 445 Reputation points

2023-12-15T11:23:32.58+00:00

I have another question regarding that now we do set the path of exe hardcoded. If the exe moves from one place to another, how can we take care of it? Is there a better than hardcoding the exe path.
Castorix31 90,686 Reputation points

2023-12-15T11:28:09.8666667+00:00

The current exe path can be got with APIs like GetModuleFileName

Answer 2

Minxin Yu 13,501 Microsoft External Staff

Hi, Rohan Pande

Add the .xyz key in registry root:
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xyz
Change the key's default value to your app name.

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Then add sub keys below:
User's image

Modify the command's default value.
Such as :

"XXX\yourapp.exe" "%1"

Use CMD to notify the system:

assoc .xyz=your app's name

enter image description here Sample:

enter image description here

Best regards,

Minxin Yu

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Rohan Pande 445 Reputation points

2023-12-15T03:34:08.12+00:00

This answer is also Accepted and similar to the above.
Rohan Pande 445 Reputation points

2023-12-15T08:06:18.03+00:00

@Minxin Yu But for excel like applications there is nothing as such that we have tried here. How is that working?

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How to associate a certain file type for my application?

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