IT Resource

If you’ve ever clicked on a file with an unknown extension before, you would have seen a dialog box asking if you would like to “Use the web service to find the correct program“.  Now, I don’t know about you, but personally I find this really annoying! If you’re unsure which one I’m talking about, maybe this image will help:

Everyone I know of simply selects “Select a program from a list of installed programs“. If you select this option, the following dialog box will appear:

So, considering that first dialog box is virtually useless, lets make a small change to our registry which will get rid of it.

Changing the Registry

Open regedit.exe by typing it into the Start menu search or run box. Browse down to the following key (if the key doesn’t exist, create it):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Right click on the key Explorer and select New, and then DWORD Value.

Name: NoInternetOpenWith
Value: 1

What you should have now is something that looks similar to this:

If it all looks correct, exit the Registry Editor and try opening a file with an unknown extension.  You should be asked straight away which program you would like to use.  You don’t have to restart your computer – the registry edit takes effect immediately.