No File Association for PDF file

[Hewie Poplock]

Sheila Bigel sent the following:
Windows 7 problem - my list of file associations does not show .pdf

[Hewie Poplock]

Set File Associations

There are 2 ways that I use to set file associations. The first is when ther are no associations for a file type. That means the file name does not say that it is a certain file type. This usually is set when you install a program. Typically, a Word document uses a ,doc or .docx extension and if you point to a file in Windows Explorer or My Computer, it knows that the file is associated with Word and will start the program and open the file.

If there is no association:
1. Click on the file anyway and you will get the following dialog box

Change what you want to do to "Select a Program from a list of installed Programs"

Then Browse to the program. You may have look for it and usually it will be located under Drive C and then Program Files (C:\Program Files). Then find the program or publisher and drill down to find the program's exe file.
Be sure the "Always Use the selected program" is checked to create the association. If that is not checked (and sometimes I don't want it to be) it will not create an association for any future tries.

If there is already an association and you want to change it (i.e. from Adobe Acrobat Professional to Adobe Acrobat Reader), then go to the Control Panel, Choose All Control Panel Items

Then choose Default Programs and Set Associations. Find the file extension and click Change Program

That should do it.

[Sheila Bigel]

Hewie:
Thanks for the writeup. I had gotten to the point where I selected Foxit to open pdf files, but I didn't notice the bottom of the dialog box where I would check the Always open this type of file with this program.
As it turns out, I uninstalled and reinstalled Foxit Reader and that totally resolved the issue.
By the way, I am getting occasional screen blacking out and then resetting itself. I wonder if it is similar to the problem you talked about with one of your displays. If it persists, I will have to look into it further.
Sheila

[Hewie Poplock]

For the screen blacking and resetting itself, check to see if there is an update for the driver for your video card (chip, if it's on the motherboard). Also Windows 7 has some trouble shooting tools built in. For the Action Center, go to the Control Panel and find the Action Center.

A second tool can be found by either opening the Control Panel and clicking on Troubleshooting in the "All Contol Panel Items" or launch the troubleshooting platform, just go to the Start menu and type fix or troubleshoot. A wizard will launch automatically.
This is what I found on my computer.

Then I clicked on the button "View Message Details"

Sheila Bigel said:

Hewie:
Thanks for the writeup. I had gotten to the point where I selected Foxit to open pdf files, but I didn't notice the bottom of the dialog box where I would check the Always open this type of file with this program.
As it turns out, I uninstalled and reinstalled Foxit Reader and that totally resolved the issue.
By the way, I am getting occasional screen blacking out and then resetting itself. I wonder if it is similar to the problem you talked about with one of your displays. If it persists, I will have to look into it further.
Sheila