RE: RE: RE: Very basic question!

[raflach]

From explorer click view options or view Folder Options, and then click the File Types Tab

Then, locate the file type you are interested in in the "Registerd file types" list box. Unfortunately, they are listed alphabetically by description rather than extension, so this may take a bit of seaching. Clicking on a description will show the extension(s) associated with it in the "File type details" box at the bottom of the dialog.

Once you have found the type you are interested in, click the edit button. In the "Actions:" list box, you will see the currently associated actions for that file type. The one labeled "Open" and in bold is the default for double-clicking. Click the new button.

In the "Action:" text-box, type the name that you want to see in the context(right-click) menu. E.g. "Edit with Textpad", or "Open in excell"

In the "Application used to perform this action:" textbox, type the full path and filename of the application. E.g. c:\winnt\notepad.exe or "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\excel.exe". NOTE: the "" around paths with spaces are required.

If the program requires special command line parameters, you must use the % variable batch file standards to encode the command, with %1% being automatically set to the filename you are trying to open.
E.g. "c:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\excel.exe" /e "%1%"
to start up excel suppressing the welcome screen and default blank workbook from displaying.

Click the Ok button, and that dialog will close, and your action will be added to the "Actions" listbox. If you are working with a source code file, I would reccomend clicking the always show extension checkbox as well. Click Ok again, and you are back to the Options dialog. One final click of OK, and you are done.

Now go to a file of the correct type, and right click. Your new action will be in the context menu, and clicking that menu option should bring the file up in the specified program if you did everything correctly.

TO ALL:::: Sorry for the non-perl discussion here, but I figured it might help others as well.