Vista - Set File Type Associations

Hi,

I need to be able to set the default file associations for word,excel and
powerpoint etc when a user logs in. We are using terminal services and
roaming profiles. We have migrated some of our users to open office, so
their profiles need to be updated to use swriter for word documents, calc
for excel etc. I can do this manually for each user as they phone up; by
right clicking say a spreadsheet and select open with, select scalc.exe and
check always open with this program (which is rather tedious as we have
about 300 users). I have tried the assoc command in a batch file under a
normal user account; but i think this needs admin rights to work because i
get an 'error in processing'? Is there a way I can do this through a
vbscript?

Thanks in advance

Matt

You can do it with VBScript. Each file extension
has a key under HKCR, with a default value that
points to a "class" key in HKCR. The default program
is there.
Example:

HKCR\.txt\
default value: "txtfile"

HKCR\txtfile\shell\open\command\
default value: "C:\windows\notepad.exe %1"

That's the basic template. In some cases programs
will write their own commandline parameters into
the value. The basic formula of "[path] %1" should
work, but as long as you're dealing with a single,
known change it might be a good idea to check
exactly what OO writes to the Registry. I've come
across cases in the past where a program seems to
have a "brittle" parsing technique and fails to open a
file if the command line is not just right.

To do the writing of values, see the RegWrite
method of WScript.Shell. It's fairly simple:

Dim SH, s, sCommand

sCommand = "C:\windows\notepad.exe %1"
Set SH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

s = SH.RegRead("HKCR\.txt\")
SH.RegWrite "HKCR\" & s & "\shell\open\command\", sCommand, "REG_SZ"

Set SH = Nothing

That's "air code". The first parameter is the path.
A "\" at the end writes the default key value. Without
"\", the last section is the value name.
I don't remember offhand whether RegWrite will
create a series of non-existing keys. You might need
to go through those steps if OO hasn't written the values.

I use something like the following as a simple
"Does the key exist?" function:

Public Function Exists(RegPath)
Dim r
On Error Resume Next
Err.clear
r = SH.RegRead(RegPath)
If hex(Err.number) = "80070002" Then
Exists = False
Else
Exists = True
End If
End Function

If OO has already written all of the needed
values then you just need to switch the extension
value. In other words, the whole thing hinges on
what Windows finds at HKCR\.doc. That value is
like the train track switch: Everything from there
will go in the direction you point it. For instance,
on my own system I have the data "OpenOffice.org.doc"
under HKCR\.doc\. If I switched that to "Txtfile"
then Notepoad would open my .doc files.

mayayana wrote:Whenever I am setting up a registry entry to send
a file to some utility (for example a txt file to
an editor), I like to wrap the parameter in quotes:

D:\TextEditors\EditPlus\Editplus.exe "%1"

In case the filepath contains blanks, wrapping
it in quotes will get the entire path sent to
the utility, instead of just the path -- up to
the first blank.

cheers, jw

Thanks for the assistance on this; it did point me in the right direction. I
thought i would post my findings so if anyone else has the same problem. In
my case it was trying to default to open office, but you could use it for
any application.

The only thing with HKCR is that you need to be a local admin to make
changes. HKCR I think will also only change it for the PC/Server, probably
not so much of a problem with local users but more of an issue with roaming
profiles and locked down terminal server users. With a bit of monitoring
with processmon i found that it is HKCU (which the user would have
permissions to) - I know this because they could make the association
manually. The actual key is
"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\<.extension>\progid"
<.extension> will be the .doc/.xls/.ppt/.rtf etc; progid will be the
internal name of the application that is set to open that file type. I found
what they were by using the commands assoc and ftype. For example setting
..docs progid to openoffice.org.doc will make a word document open with open
office writer - it will also change the icon. I made a simple VBS script
that used regwrite to create the progid key (it will create it if doesn't
exist and overwrite if does)

Thanks

Matt



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