WAssociate

WAssociate is a software application designed to help you see, modify, and - in general terms - manage the existing relationship between the different kinds of file extensions (e.g., .exe, .doc, .txt, etc.) and the system file types, which are properly defined on the Windows registry.

Although it is possible to directly edit and manipulate the system registry, WAssociate offers a visual interface where you can access the file association information in a much tidier and more efficient way, thus avoiding the risks of a direct registry manipulation.

WAssociate interface is simple and easy to use. It offers a series of drop-down lists and boxes where all the information related to a file extension is displayed. The first drop-down list allows you to choose among all the registered file extensions in your system. When you select one of them, you can automatically see the file type for that extension, the default application for opening/editing it, its Mime type, the default template for creating new files corresponding to that extension, and the portion of the registry containing all the information for the extension.

On the other hand, you can also see the information related to the file type. Here you can see the file type name, the default action for it, a description for that action, the specific shell command for opening files of that type, and whether to confirm the opening of a file of a certain type right after downloading it. Here you can even see and change the default icon for the specific file type, and its respective registry block.

On the top of the program's interface a toolbar provides shortcuts to many of the available actions, like selecting and opening a file in the Windows explorer, "splitting" the program's main window - which in fact opens a duplicate -, opening the Windows Registry Editor, cutting, copying, pasting and deleting any selected text, undoing the last change, refreshing the displayed information from the registry itself, and opening the configuration window. All the information displayed when you select a file extension can be modified and saved, so that those changes are permanently reflected on the Windows registry. Definitely, this is an excellent program.