Re-associate Image File Type to Open with a Specific Program?

Infopackets Reader John W. writes:

" I have a Dell PC and it came with Jasc Paint Shop Pro [picture editor software] installed. After a few months of operation, a screen came up and told me that the trial period for Paint Shop Pro (PSP) had expired. I had never used it, so I uninstalled it as PSP cost over $100 to buy the program. After doing this I could no longer open attachments in my Outlook Express. I guess that part of Paint Shop Pro was used to view my email image attachments for Outlook Express.

I went searching for a viewer to install and came across a page on the Internet that suggested using Windows Picture and Fax viewer, a free image viewer that comes bundled with Windows XP. I managed to make Picture and Fax viewer my default viewer. Unfortunately, this has not resolved my problem as the majority of images I try to open are not loading with Picture and Fax viewer. Any ideas how I can get this problem fixed? "

My response:

There are a number of important details you left out in your message, such as: which files you re-associated with Picture and Fax viewer, and what method you used to re-associate the files, and which image files you were having problems with.

At any rate, you can manage all of your image files extensions manually with Windows XP by opening an Explorer Window (click start -> run -> type in "explorer", no quotes, and press Enter). Next, go to Tools -> Folder Options, then click on the File Types tab. Scroll down the list of image file types and edit each one to open with a specific program.

This may be a lot of work, depending on the number of image files you need to re-associate. A better alternative would be to download IrfanView, which is a freeware image viewer that supports darn near every image file type. You can use IrfanView to re-associate all of your image files, too, and this should take care of your problem.

http://www.irfanview.com/