W11 - "Always use this app" checkbox is gone. Cannot change default app for file type.

[Vordreller]

Screenshot:

 

This is on a recent laptop, came with Win11 pre-installed.

 

I would expect there to be a checkbox that says "Always use this app" and that changes the default app for the file type.

 

For instance, like this:

 

 

SEO seems to have messed things up, googling for this only gets me links about getting back Windows' default apps if they are gone.

 

Anyone know of this behavior and how to restore the old behavior?

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

14 minutes ago, Vordreller said:

Screenshot:

 

This is on a recent laptop, came with Win11 pre-installed.

 

I would expect there to be a checkbox that says "Always use this app" and that changes the default app for the file type.

 

For instance, like this:

 

 

SEO seems to have messed things up, googling for this only gets me links about getting back Windows' default apps if they are gone.

 

Anyone know of this behavior and how to restore the old behavior?

 

Seems to be there for me.

 

Can you set it manually through settings?

[SupaKomputa]

 

no checkbox, which is better.

[Vordreller]

6 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Seems to be there for me.

 

Can you set it manually through settings?

 

 

Nope

 

 

 

Or any other. jpg, png, gif, bmp...

 

With or without the dot, nothing comes up. So `.png` and `png` both give nothing.

[SupaKomputa]

[Vordreller]

4 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

There's no option to make it permanent. Meanwhile on my old Win10 there is. And I'm seeing online that other people do have the option.

 

So what's going on here.

 

All these menus, I can find them just fine. The problem is: where is the option to make the change permanent?

 

Installing Irfanview has an option to change a bunch of default image associations, to set Irfanview as the default.

 

After reboot, those got reset.

 

What's going on? Why can't I permanently change the default app for a file type?

[Mark Kaine]

10 hours ago, Vordreller said:

With or without the dot, nothing comes up. So `.png` and `png` both give nothing.

tbf it looks like you put a space before  "png" so of course it wouldn't find that (actually in the link below it also looks like that, so maybe that specific setting is just broken you need to try the like 5 other settings that do apparently the same)

 

However i also find it strange that there's no option to set a default app for files, but then i shouldn't be surprised they also almost removed copy and paste, the staple of windows since 1.0. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

btw i found this

https://windowsreport.com/set-default-apps-windows-11/

 

check the other options,  you don't need to type out the file types like you did apparently (except in that setting you already tried) 

 

 

[GoodBytes]

Well, it is simple on what causes your issue. You played with your Group Policy of the system, or you used a teak tool that did stuff intentionally or not.

 

Now the question is how to fix it? You can start by looking under Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer.

 

[Vordreller]

6 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

tbf it looks like you put a space before  "png" so of course it wouldn't find that (actually in the link below it also looks like that, so maybe that specific setting is just broken you need to try the like 5 other settings that do apparently the same)

 

However i also find it strange that there's no option to set a default app for files, but then i shouldn't be surprised they also almost removed copy and paste, the staple of windows since 1.0. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

btw i found this

https://windowsreport.com/set-default-apps-windows-11/

 

check the other options,  you don't need to type out the file types like you did apparently (except in that setting you already tried) 

 

 

Tested again, there's no space before or after.

 

Also, the very article you link has this screenshot, showing the same amount of distance:

 

 

 

Moving on, the article also describes this option:

 

But I'm getting this:

 

The button is just not there (file path wiped for privacy).

 

Meanwhile I've discovered that for certain video files I can change the default. Just not file like gif, jpg and png and the like...

 

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Well, it is simple on what causes your issue. You played with your Group Policy of the system, or you used a teak tool that did stuff intentionally or not.

 

Now the question is how to fix it? You can start by looking under Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer.

 

 

No such thing happened. Windows tweakers stopped being useful after Win Vista, in my opinion.

 

Had a quick check " Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer." not sure what I should be looking for.

 

 

I'd also mention: this is an HP laptop. Maybe this is a preconfig from HP?

[Mark Kaine]

59 minutes ago, Vordreller said:

Also, the very article you link has this screenshot, showing the same amount of distance:

yeap:

 

8 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

actually in the link below it also looks like that, so maybe that specific setting is just broken you need to try the like 5 other settings that do apparently the same

i know it's no guarantee but i would suggest reading the guide again thoroughly there's a whole bunch of ways to do this, which some might not be there anymore (these articles are often outdated) but some of them surely should be there, this one specifically i cant imagine being not there

 

 

i actually remember doing this when i tested 11 (was a pre-release  version  though) 

 

edit: also check which version you have, maybe this laptop just need an update? 

 

Starting with Windows 11 build 25206, the updated “Open with” dialog box is now available to all.

 

(apparently it was really missing at several points)

 

 

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Well, it is simple on what causes your issue. You played with your Group Policy of the system, or you used a teak tool that did stuff intentionally or not.

yeah, that happened to me recently with shutup10... i was really stupid to download the newset version in hindsight because there was no need for that... it's like 100 times worse and more intrusive as the older versions and somehow completely disabled Cortana, even though i didn't even touch any Cortana settings! I got her back by reverting all settings again (it must have been some privacy setting which doesn't even mention Cortana at all...) and now Cortana is back, but she's not the same... somehow my "top apps" used to be frozen in time, it was great because that was super convenient... idk what setting that could even be, but theoretically I'd just need to open an older version of shutup10 that should remember my settings?!

 

Ah, well, i agree, something like that could have happened to OP, because why would all those file options be missing, afaik windows 11 still has that functionality. 

 

ps: or its their windows version (as per my edit above) 

[Vordreller]

Well in the mean time I found the options inside irfanview to have irfanview do it for me.

 

Strange that this would happen. For the moment Windows Update is saying it has no more updates for me...

 

I'll keep an eye on things, but for now I've found a workaround... Still strange.

 

Thanks for everyone who replied, for wanting to engage and put in effort.