Native 'Open With...' menu replacement

[spicydog]

Can anybody recommend a utility that would permit to specify any number of suitable applications to open different file types?

In other words when I open a file, instead of being restricted to use the default application associated to that particular extension I would like to have the flexibility to choose among a list of (favorite/frequently used) applications.

Something that would overtake the native 'Open With...' would be nice (this is not a must since I can manually disable the native menu).

I would imagine this to be a Windows context menu integration so nothing which would really fall into the 'stealth app' category

I have tested OpenExpert (by Babex) but I am allergic to developers who UPX unknown stuff into .exe/.dll files, so I decided not to use it.

Also Open++ (by Dengdun) turned out to be unsuitable since it adds a ton of entries that I do not need (or already have), such as: Command Prompt, Copy Path, Copy Short Path, Run with Parameters, Register DLL, Unregister DLL, Open/Close CD Drive, Set File Attributes, Set File Time.

Suggestions are very welcome

Thanks in advance,

SD

[m^(2)]

Total Commander has portable associations and using it you can put any app in the (Total Commander's only) context menu for any extension you choose.

[spicydog]

Total Commander has portable associations and using it you can put any app in the (Total Commander's only) context menu for any extension you choose.

In my post I forgot to mention that I do not consider changing my file manager because of the 'Open With...' menu, but thanks to m^(2) I now had the opportunity to indicate that.

Not long ago I came across a small utility that does just what I want, only I couldn't for the life of me remember its name nor the developer name

I regret that I did not download it at that time and stored it somewhere!

[I am Baas]

Not long ago I came across a small utility that does just what I want, only I couldn't for the life of me remember its name nor the developer name

Was it Choice Editor?

[spicydog]

Not long ago I came across a small utility that does just what I want, only I couldn't for the life of me remember its name nor the developer name

Was it Choice Editor?

Definitely not as I do not use TC and Choice Editor seems to be a TC addon. Thanks anyway for the hint...

I guess that it must have been something like 'Open With Manager' or 'Open With Organizer'... Despite all the nice names I came up with, my dear friend Google does not seem to cooperate on that specific quest.

I really hope that somebody here can point me in the right direction.

Cheers

[I am Baas]

Not long ago I came across a small utility that does just what I want, only I couldn't for the life of me remember its name nor the developer name

Was it Choice Editor?

Definitely not as I do not use TC and Choice Editor seems to be a TC addon. Thanks anyway for the hint...

Wrong. I do not have TC but ChoiceEditor works great.

[spicydog]

Wrong. I do not have TC but ChoiceEditor works great.

Well, when I read your previous post suggesting ChoiceEditor what I did was:

- Download ChoiceEditor

- Open the enclosed html file (to read a bit about this app)

- Then when I saw this...

-----------------------------------------------------------

ChoiceEditor for Total Comander

This utility allows you to assign any program installed on your system to open various filetypes via Total Commander.
As a result, whenever you hit F4 in Total Commander your file will be opened in the program you selected earlier and which you consider to be the most appropriate for viewing or editing that filetype.

Unpack to any directory. Enter the program's full path in the Total Commander settings. (In the Configuration menu: Settings - Editing/Viewing - Program-editor)

-----------------------------------------------------------

...I replied to you with a (pretty conservative) "Choice Editor seems to be a TC addon"... Can I be blamed?

Anyway, I must have missed something and jumped to conclusions (which I definitely should have not done, sorry)... Now I have tried to make ChoiceEditor work but I got kinda nowhere

Would you be so kind to tell me how do you actually use it (without Total Commander )?

Just give me a simple example... Say, open a .reg file in Notepad.

Thanks in advance for your patience and support

[spicydog]

Wait a second!

I have just tried by adding ChoiceEditor to SendTo and it seems to work!!!

Is that how I am supposed to use it?

[lautrepay]

Also Open++ (by Dengdun) turned out to be unsuitable since it adds a ton of entries that I do not need (or already have), such as: Command Prompt, Copy Path, Copy Short Path, Run with Parameters, Register DLL, Unregister DLL, Open/Close CD Drive, Set File Attributes, Set File Time.

In no more than 5 minutes you can delete all the unnecessaries commands in Open++.
It's a great little app and my personal choise.

[spicydog]

The utility (ChoiceEditor) suggested by I am Baas is nothing shy of SENSATIONAL

I do not know if I am Baas uses it in a different way (actually I am curious to know that) but added to the SendTo it works splendidly... (Weird that such an important detail did not seem to be mentioned anywhere in the utility documentation).

Prior to adding ChoiceEditor to the SendTo, launching this (barely 25K) gem only writes 1 key to the registry (HKU\Software\Microsoft\Visual Basic\5.0) while all associations and settings are written to the .ini file located in the same directory with ChoiceEditor.exe.

I would like to thank all the participants to this thread and -as far as I am concerned- the gold medal goes to ChoiceEditor

Thanks I am Baas (when you have the chance, please let me have your feedback).

[freakazoid]

Also Open++ (by Dengdun) turned out to be unsuitable since it adds a ton of entries that I do not need (or already have), such as: Command Prompt, Copy Path, Copy Short Path, Run with Parameters, Register DLL, Unregister DLL, Open/Close CD Drive, Set File Attributes, Set File Time.

In no more than 5 minutes you can delete all the unnecessaries commands in Open++.
It's a great little app and my personal choise.

So true! Open++ is great! Just remove all the items you don't need!

[spicydog]

Both lautrepay and freakazoid are very right, Open ++ is a great application too (and very flexible indeed... I was wrong in my first assessment).

The reason why I decided to go with ChoiceEditor (on a specific system) is that at every reboot the primary partition (C:\) is set to roll back to its original installation status (it is a sort of a virtual machine) so the fact that ChoiceEditor stores all settings and associations in an ini file (in the app dir) is just perfect since I can keep it on a different partition and the settings/associations will persist across reboots.

Open ++ writes the associations to the registry and on that specific system I would loose them at every reboot.

I do agree with you that -on a regular system- probably Open ++ should deserve to be the 1st choice.

Thanks once more to both of you for the valuable recommendation and your help

[freakazoid]

Open++ does not write associations to the registry; they are written to an .ini file inside the OpenXX.exe directory.

The only thing that affects the registry is to register the right click shell extension, which you can also install / uninstall from the options menu.

[I am Baas]

@spicydog

The 'SendTo' is an option but look at this post @ DonationCoder Forums for another one (sorry, too lazy to write it down myself ). Pay attention to the note about file association.

[spicydog]

Open++ does not write associations to the registry; they are written to an .ini file inside the OpenXX.exe directory.

The only thing that affects the registry is to register the right click shell extension, which you can also install / uninstall from the options menu.

You are absolutely right!

I just rebooted (so with a 'clean' system I could test that) and it appears to be just like you said! Thanks again.

Cooooooooooooool