I had a customer that had incorrect file associations with Turbotax software program. They were using a Microsoft Windows ten operating system based computer. Each time they tried opening an Adobe portable document format document, Notepad would open up instead.
Obviously, Notepad will not be able to open an Adobe portable document format document. I immediately suspected that their Microsoft Windows ten operating system file associations were misconfigured, at least for Turbotax. In order to change file associations in Microsoft Windows ten operating system you want to browse to “Default apps”.
You can left click the Microsoft Windows ten operating system menu button in lower left corner. Then you will want to choose the “Settings” gear icon. You can either type in “Default apps” in a “Find a setting” search box or look for “Apps” and choose “Uninstall, defaults, optional features”.
Then you will need to select “Apps” and click on “Default apps” on the left hand side. Also, you can type in “Default apps” into Cortana search tool in order to change your default applications in Microsoft Windows ten operating system. This main default applications window only shows a few programs.
You will want to scroll down to the bottom and then click on Choose default apps by file type. Now you have access to every single file type extension that Microsoft Windows ten operating system supports. The very left hand column sorts file types in alphabetical order.
The right column lists what application is associated with that extension. You will notice that some file extensions do not have a default application associated.
This is normal and just means that that particular extension does not have a program installed on Microsoft Windows ten operating system or a default application was never configured. You can click on the + sign or Choose a default in order to set a default application for a particular file extension. Also, like my customer, you can change an existing default application if it was configured wrong.
You will want to scroll down until you find the file extension. For example scroll down and look for .pdf Adobe Acrobat Document. This customer's computer had notepad configured as the default application.
I clicked on Notepad to the right of the .pdf file extension, which allowed me to change it. A Choose an app popup windows should open up with a list of applications to choose from. You can then click on the appropriate application.
That is all you need to perform. You have just learned how to change Microsoft Windows ten operating system file associations. These instructions and tips were written for Microsoft Windows ten operating system but can be used as a basis point for other Microsoft Windows operating systems.