Windows Vista/Seven – Restore and Reset File Association Back to Original Default

Windows Vista allows user to change and set default program association for most kind of file extension type via Control Panel’s “Set Associations” or “Set Default Programs” under “Default Programs” link. However, there is no option or way to reset or restore the file type or file extension association to back to original default the is configured in factory-pre-installed or freshly installed Windows Vista.

List of programs available under “Set Default Programs” link, such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office Outlook, Windows Calender, Windows Mail, Windows Media Player and Windows Photo Gallery has defined their own default supported file extensions, types and protocols.

And, user can easily set the program as the default program to use to open all file types and protocols it can open. Even so, it may not be the default file association that configured in Windows Vista originally.

Unless user remembers and knows the original file association and change the default program for the kind of file type accordingly using the graphical user interface (GUI) in Control Panel, else here’s another workaround to restore and reset the file association to the default Windows Vista version of file association.

1. Click Start Menu, and then type regedit in the Start Search and press ENTER.
2. Navigate to the following registry branch:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerFileExts[ext]

   Replace the [ext] with the actual file extension that you want to restore its file type association to revert back to original Windows Vista default. If you unsure, simply browse through all the sub-key under FileExts.

3. Delete the sub-key named UserChoice.
4. Exit from Registry Editor.

Windows Vista will now use original file associations that comes built into system for the particular file extensions with “UserChoice” deleted. However, the trick is not foolproof, especially if the other related system registry keys for the particular extension have been corrupted or broken.

In such cases, it may be necessary to fix the file association by restoring its registry settings.