Re: Windows: Documentation for bin\*.exe

[Michael Schierl]

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:54:02 +0100, Reiner Steib wrote:

>> In Windows' file manager (explorer.exe), you can right click on a file
>> and select "Open With..." (re-translated from German, I'm not sure
>> about the exact wording in English) 

The internal name of this action (in the Explorer's object model) is
"openas", but some registry keys suggest that "OpenWith" is also ok (maybe
it was renamed?).

>> But now Explorer remembered all Emacs executables and in its
>> selection dialog box (after "Open with...") presents severals
>> executables but they all have the very same description ("GNU Emacs
>> for Windows NT/95/98/2000/ME/XP" or similar; FileDescription in
>> nt/emacs.rc maybe?) and icon (the new Emacs icon).

Windows will show there the content of the VersionInfo resource record (the
one that is displayed in the propery sheet tab "Version" of te .EXE file).
It depends on the compiler where that one is stored.

This has been changed in Windows XP or 2000 (don't remember which one),
before, it showed the EXE name. This led to interesting results, like
opening zip archives with "the most powerful freeware archive extracting
utility" or websites with "the fastest browser on earth".

But software authors learned from it and stopped writing marketing slogans
into the VersionInfo resource :-)

>> (BTW, how to delete existing entries in "Open With..."?)

Use the registry editor. Depending on whether you did it with Admin
privileges or without, you will have to check

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.###\OpenWithList

or

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.###\OpenWithList

Both can contain keys ("folders") or values ("entries" in the right pane)
with EXE names, paths, or OLE class IDs in it. There may also be a MRU
entry that orders the other entries. Just delete what you do not need and
remove the entries from the MRU entry as well (if present). This is for
Windows XP, the key might be at a diferent location for other versions, but
doing a search for a key with exact name "OpenWithList" should point you to
the right location. Or, alternatively, open the file with 10 other
programs, in fact rotating the "old" entries out.

Michael