Oct242012

How can I restore the file type association of desktop icons after accidentally changing it to Windows Media Player?

Jhonmark asks:

I was playing a video song just this morning. Accidentally, the icon from Windows Media Player was dragged into the desktop and made it change all the icons into Media icons. When I tried to open a program, it can’t be opened. It says there that the “Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file”

Please help me solve this problem. Thanks a lot!


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System: Windows 7
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9 Answers -

0 votes

Tina

October 24, 2012

Jhonmark,

As the title I added suggests, you changed the file type association of your desktop shortcuts. You can easily undo that using a registry fix.

The question has been asked many times before and I finally wrote an article about it:
How To Change & Fix Broken File Type Associations In Windows 7

Here is the relevant excerpt:

How Can I Fix A Broken .lnk File Association?

This file type association usually attracts little attention, unless it stops working. It can stop working for two major reasons: either the file association is broken or the registry got corrupted.

The easiest way to fix it in Windows Vista and Windows 7 is to download and run the lnk file association fix from this website (direct download). To run the fix, you need to have Administrator rights. Unzip the file to the desktop, right-click the > lnkfix_vista.reg file and click > Merge. The file will make the necessary changes to the registry to fix the file association. After it is done, reboot your computer and the problems should be gone.

The website also features fixes for other bad file associations, including .exe, .zip, and .com file association fixes.

Matt Rapper

OMG I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW! THANKYOU SO MUCH! I AM SO GRATEFUL! EXCUSE THE POOR GRAMMAR BUT I WAS SO WORRIED I WAS GONNA LOSE EVERYTHING

November 7, 2012
0 votes

ha14

October 24, 2012

do a system restore point to revert back to yesterday for example.

0 votes

Saurabh Banwaskar

October 24, 2012

You Can Restore Your System To An earlier System Restore Point !!!!!

0 votes

Ray Randall

October 24, 2012

your not giving us enough info, simply dragging the windows media player exe to the desktop wouldnt change every exe to use it ..what else happened?

run a spyware and virus check

system restore may be your best bet if you have it enabled

0 votes

Lisa Santika Onggrid

October 25, 2012

I’m not entirely sure… but if it’s normal files you can just right click>open with…>ticking use this as default application> choose the appropriate app. Else you should do what Tina suggested.

Douglas Mutay

Agreed. This should be the easy way. Unless it’s something more serious and you didn’t say it all.

November 1, 2012
0 votes

Dave Rimmer

October 25, 2012

Right click on the file then scroll down to open with and choose the right program that you want to open it with.Failing that when windows states that it cannot open the file choose the browse for program option then choose the program you want to open it with.

0 votes

kalpana jayasri

November 7, 2012

i had open windows exflorer file using wordpad by a mistake.i dont know fix this problem so i open this file again using w exflorer folder.now my all shortcuts have becamo to link fils &they cant open.please help me to solve this prob.

0 votes

kalpana jayasri

November 7, 2012

i had open w exflorer file using wordpad by a mistake.i dont know fix this so i open w exflorer with w ex too.now my all shortcuts have become to link files.can i solve this without backup my pc?pl help me solve this prob.