How to Enable / Disable “Always use the selected program to open this kind of file” Option in Open With Dialog Box?

Whenever we use "Open With" option to open a file in Windows, it shows a dialog box containing a list of installed programs to choose from. There is also a checkbox "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" given at the bottom of this dialog box which is used to set the selected program permanent to open that filetype.

Sometimes it gets irritating when we accidentally select a program from the list and click on "OK" button. It sets the selected program as default to open that file type which adds some extra work to our life.

So here I'll tell you a simple registry trick to permanently disable this checkbox:

For Windows XP:

Method A:

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. Now go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown\shell\openas\command

2. In right-side pane, change value of "Default" key to as following:

%SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1 %2

NOTE: We have only appended %2 at last of default value. You can use any number from 2-9.

3. Exit registry editor and try to open "Open With" dialog box. You'll find that the checkbox is disabled now as shown in following screenshot:

For Windows Vista, 7 or Server 2008:

Method A:

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. Now go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Unknown\shell\opendlg\command

2. In right-side pane, change value of "Default" key to as following:

%SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1 %2

NOTE: We have only appended %2 at last of default value. You can use any number from 2-9.

3. Exit registry editor and try to open "Open With" dialog box. You'll find that the checkbox is disabled now as shown in following screenshot:

Method B:

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. Now go to:

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

If the "Explorer" key is not present, create it manually.

2. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoFileAssociate and set its value to 1

3. Exit registry editor and try to open "Open With" dialog box. You'll find that the checkbox is completely removed now as shown in following screenshot:

NOTE: As you can see, when we use Method A to disable the checkbox, the "Open With" dialog box doesn't show recommended programs list which it does when we use Method B. Also if you see the last screenshot of Windows Vista, the Method B totally remove the checkbox instead of disabling it.

BONUS TIP: This tutorial can also be used in reverse condition. e.g. if this checkbox is already disabled in your Windows and you want to enable it, then you can remove the %2 mentioned in Method A or set value of DWORD value to 0 as mentioned in Method B.