Solved Broken (and "locked"?) rtf > wordpad association,

Hello, first post here.

Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Service Pack 1

*Virus/Malware scanners up to date, nothing suspicious in tasks, no odd performance issues...

Description of Problem

After "Something ?" Happened, Windows lost the ability to Default-open
Rtf files in wordpad. This Had been the default behavior.
*At the time, OpenOffice was installed, and when this problem first occurred,
Openoffce WP “became” the default Open action.
I uninstalled Openoffice, which only resulted in “blank” icons for rtf files.

Double-clicking (shell-default verb) only results in “Windows cannot open this file…use web service, or browse to find correct application”

1) OK, web service does absolutely nothing. (Is this blocked by default firewall settings?)

2) Clicking “browse for correct app” SHOWS wordpad as the default, “suggested” app. (!!!)
The “always use this app” checkbox is checked.

Basically, this “checkbox” is apparently broken, because Windows can’t associate the file with the app. It always forgets, or does nothing.

Now, if you Right Click on the rtf file, the Bold Face Open (top, default action verb) brings up The “windows cannot open this file…etc.”. If you click the small “Open” below this, the file Opens Up In WordPad (!).

If you click “properties”, you see that “rtf” files are associated (default open) with….
“Windows Shell Common…?” (looks like a .dll icon, as I can’t see the whole name in the property dialog)….If you click “Change”, it opens up the “Browse for correct app” Window, again Showing WordPad (!!!) as default, suggested program.

Somehow, this basic shell double-click default verb action for “rtf” is broken and gets pointed to Some basic shell system .dll instead of wordpad.

*****Interestingly, using a few different “file association editor” programs, they all show that “rtf” is not a valid, assigned extention. It is listed as “orphaned”, but Cannot be associated with anything. In particular, “File Type Manager 2” shows “rtf” in the orphaned category, but if you click “change”, “rtf” isn’t of course listed in the “valid” extentions that can be associated to.


I’ve searched the registry for every “rtf” related key, and compared to other computers…everything seems the same, nothing seems broken or missing.

Would there be different settings using “Wordpad” as the registry search?

Would there be an odd, malicious malware thing that would “steal” the rtf extension and Not let Vista reassign it?

Any and all suggestions and tips very appreciated!

Thanks

(sorry for the random caps...MS works doing it's auto grammar thing)

re: Broken (and "locked"?) rtf > wordpad association,

Hello Judexavier, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You can use Default Programs to set the .rtf file extension to have the "Current Program" associated to open it with Wordpad (C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe) again.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

re: Broken (and "locked"?) rtf > wordpad association,

Thanks for the reply, Brink.
Well, that doesn't work either.
In "default programs", wordpad isn't even displayed.
In "Set associations", "rtf" extension isn't on the list of types you can associate. It's been nuked out of the registry at some point.

I'll keep digging through the registry. I've got a feeling that it's one little key that has been deleted or "voided" with no data. Hopefully searching through another machine's registry will allow the difference to show up.

Thanks again for the reply.

re: Broken (and "locked"?) rtf > wordpad association,

Well, good news.
Don't know how I missed this program before, but the freeware
FileTypesMan - Alternative to 'File Types' manager of Windows (64 bit version in my case)
worked perfectly.
Upon loading, it actually displayed the "orphaned" rtf extension, and allowed it to
be "fixed" using right-click >"replace file type for selected extension". It displayed a long list of "suggestions", with "rich text file" at the top. Once this was selected, all
proper parameters were repaired. Vista's built-in tools, and other tools, haven't been able to display both the broken extension, and it's intended function, and actually "merge" the two together. (That was the frustrating part).

I also like how the program displays all relevant registry parameters.

Anyway.
Now I just need to find out what my son did to break it in the first place.

re: Broken (and "locked"?) rtf > wordpad association,

Judexavier,

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted. Thank you for sharing your solution.

From what I gather, the .rtf file association some how did not automatically revert back to WordPad when OpenOffice was uninstalled and was left blank (unassociated) instead.