File Association question

[NewsArchive]

Hi,

I have built an installation that includes the FREE FoxIt reader in as part
of it.

I have defined the association for the .FDF file, and this appears to be OK.
The problem is that after the installation, the default program for .FDF is
still Adobe Acrobat.

What do I need to do to change the default association, at the moment, I
need to manually go into the Folder Options to change the association.

Regards
Trevor Keegan

[NewsArchive]

Hi Trevor,

> I have built an installation that includes the FREE FoxIt reader in as
> part of it.
>
> I have defined the association for the .FDF file, and this appears to be
> OK. The problem is that after the installation, the default program for
> .FDF is still Adobe Acrobat.
>
> What do I need to do to change the default association, at the moment, I
> need to manually go into the Folder Options to change the association.

Could you please post a screenshot of your "Create File Association" dialog,
so we can see what you have defined?

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder
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-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hello Friedrich,

Thanks for the fast reply. Please find attached the screen shot.

Regards
Trevor Keegan

[NewsArchive]

Trevor,

If you check what Adobe Acrobat does (see HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.fdf), it does
not only register a "file extension" (.fdf), it does more. It mapps a file
extension to a Content-Type.

You have to do the same to set a new "default" reader for .FDF files (you
have to manupilate the Registry to handle this).

Hope this helps.

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hello Friedrich,

Thanks...I will take a look at that.

Regards
Trevor Keegan

[NewsArchive]

Hello Trevor,

>
> Thanks...I will take a look at that.
>

I checked this and all the entries are under:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.fdf

and

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AcroExch.FDFDoc

I am not sure if the other FDF entries in the Registry are also important.

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Hello Friedrich,

I have noticed that there is an Application item (with a value of
AcroRd32.exe) set in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.FDF.
If I remove this (or rename it), then Foxit starts up. This is exactly what
happens when I manually set change the file association in the
FolderOptions.

The problem is that this appears to only be applicable to the individual
user, I do not know if there is away to set this for all users......maybe,
this is correct, i.e. I should not set it at the default for all users.

Regards
Trevor Keegan

[NewsArchive]

Hello Trevor,

> I have noticed that there is an Application item (with a value of
> AcroRd32.exe) set in
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.FDF.
> If I remove this (or rename it), then Foxit starts up. This is exactly
> what happens when I manually set change the file association in the
> FolderOptions.
>
> The problem is that this appears to only be applicable to the individual
> user, I do not know if there is away to set this for all users......maybe,
> this is correct, i.e. I should not set it at the default for all users.

Your main problem is that you can't change the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry
key from your installer under Vista and Windows Server 2008. So you have to
find another way to solve this problem (e.g. your asInvoker application has
to do it).

I checked this and it seems to me there is no "equivalent" to the above
HKEY_CURRENT_USER key for FileExts under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

> I have built an installation that includes the FREE FoxIt reader in as part
> of it.

Trevor,

Hopefully you are providing the users an option box so that they can decide
on their own if they want to have Foxit take over the file associations.

IMHO it is VERY bad form for any program installing itself to "Hijack" file
associations as most users get really mad about it.

Just something to consider...


;-)

Charles


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[NewsArchive]

Hello Charles,

I agree with you entirely. I am asking whether they want to install it to
begin with, and then at the end, askiing whether it should be set to the
default :-)

Regards
Trevor Keegan

[NewsArchive]

Hello Friedrich,

Thanks for the info, so it would seem that the way to go would be to check
and see what the default application is for the .FDF when starting up my
application, and if it had been set to Foxit, then I need to change the
HKEY_CURRENT_USER, otherwise I simply leave it alone. I will give this a go
and see if I can make it work.....thanks for your help.

Regards
Trevor Keegan

[NewsArchive]

Hi,

OK....I think that I have got this thing sorted out. For anyone interested,
this is what I have found out:

The actual file association is defined under
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\<myExtension>.

i.e. In my case
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.FDF

Under this Key there are 3 possibilities:
1. No entries. This means that i will use the default that is defined
against the Extension in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
2. An 'Application' value, which will define the name of the application
that appears in the OpenWith list
3. A 'Progid' value, which will have a value of the program id that was
defined when you setup the extension.

Hope that this helps.

Regards
Trevor Keegan