Actually no. The majority of associations can be changed through the way that you described, but there are other ways that file associations can be made/changed that are more complex than this.
For example I have Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional and Adobe Reader 9 installed on the same machine. The default action for opening a .pdf was with Acrobat7. If you went to the explorer file associations tab, you could see the .pdf association but you could not change the default action (it would not be retained as the default action when tested). With this program, .pdf’s are listed as AcroExch.Document and the file association is same as the explorer file association tab. BUT going to AcroExch.Document7 class in which there is no assigned extension, I set the default here as Reader9 and this changed the .pdf opening to Reader9.

Nice program … it needs to be .net free to be truly portable.

Boony Rocks!

Thanks boony for your instructions. Do you have a website, forum or something? You know, you can be a total tech support hero.

The registry settings you’re looking for are:

Logoff button missing:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Look for a value in the right pane named “StartMenuLogOff”. If it is there, double click it and set the value data to “0″ (number zero).

If it is not there, right click in the right hand pane, and choose: New>DWORD value. Name the value “StartMenuLogOff” (w/out the quotes) double click it and set the value data to 0.

You might want to check:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
as well for the same entry and make the same changes.

XP Version/Build on Desktop:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Look in the right pane for the value “PaintDesktopVersion” and change the value data to 0. if is not there, create a new DWORD value, name it “PaintDesktopVersion”, and set the value data to 0.

If you are seeing this info in the lower right on your logon screen as well, navigate to:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
Look for the same value as above and make the appropriate changes.

It remains there no matter what wallpaper I have.
Any idea how to remove that.

Thanks.

(I hope I am not annoying anyone with such comments)

And oh, I also have another “little” problem. My start menu is lacking some main butons. (And I am not talking about program shortcuts) For example, the logoff button is missing. I tried to fix it with tweak UI, but didn’t work. Anyway, i can always logoff by typing logoff in the run window.
So its not a big problem, but I was just curious if I can also fix that with the registry. I never thought fixing this send to problem would be that easy.

Thanks again Boony.

Open up your start menu and click on “Run” in the dialogue box, type: “regedit” (without the quotes) to open up the registry editor. Navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers. Make sure there is a subkey named “Send To”.
If there is, click on it and look in the right pane. What you should see is a string value(ab) named “Default”. Next to that you’ll see REG_SZ. Next to that you SHOULD see the value: {7BA4C740-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837}

If any of this is missing:

To create the “Send To” key: Right click on the “ContextMenuHandlers” key in the left pane and choose: New>Key. Name it “Send To” (without the quotes)

You’ll see a string value(ab) in the right hand pane. Double click it. In the window that opens, enter: {7BA4C740-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837} (with the brackets) in the “Value Data:” dialogue box. Click “OK” and close the registry editor. Now find a file, right click it, and see if your Send To mneu is back.

Good Luck

I am not looking forward to add more options to the send-to menu, but I am looking for a way to add the “send to” option itself, in the context menu.

I think the solution lies in the registry, but I do not know it. Please help if you can.

I wanted a program that could add options to right click menus, then I learnt that it could be done by going into folder options, but the drawback was that you need to know the command line! Only for programmers (or professionals) !

Now, this program does the same, then what use is it? I’ll be grateful if you would review a program that does this the easy way.

PS: If you know programming, can you please tell me what would be the command to add an “send to desktop (as shortcut)” option in context menu of every file type ?

PPS: Dont let my negative comment let you down, your site and reviews are still great !

Nothing against this program. I’m just sharing info.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~wstudios/Associate/index.html

A long time ago I used a utility–I think it was called simply “Associate”–that was pretty useful. It was more complex than this one but if you knew what you were doing it was actually easier to use.