Determine default program to open given file extension - VBS

Question

There are a handful of answers I've found but nothing that deals specifically with my problem exactly, or not with VBS.

I am looking for a way to determine the full path to a the default program when providing a specific file extension.

My ultimate goal is to automatically create a shortcut to whatever program opens ".DOC" files (typically MS Word). But this will obviously vary on different windows machines.

I would love to do something like:

strDefaultDOCProgram = WshShell.FindAssociatedProgram("doc")

where

strDefaultDOCProgram = "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\office15\winword.exe"

Maybe helpful? Ask Windows 7 - what program opens this file by default

thewolf · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-11 15:23:32Z

3

I ultimately decided to use the assoc and ftype commands just in case we want to use this script on any other Windows versions. Here's a function that will do everything I needed. I hope it's helpful to someone!

Dim WshShell
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

' Should supply the program extension with period "." included
Function GetProgramPath(ext)
Dim strProg, strProgPath

' Get Program Association Handle
Set oExec =  WshShell.Exec("cmd.exe /c assoc " & ext)
strProg = oExec.StdOut.ReadLine()
strProg = Split(strProg, "=")(1)

' Get Path To Program
Set oExec =  WshShell.Exec("cmd.exe /c ftype " & strProg)
strProgPath = oExec.StdOut.ReadLine()
strProgPath = Split(strProgPath, """")(1)

' Return the program path
GetProgramPath = strProgPath

End Function

strPath = GetProgramPath(".doc")
WScript.Echo strPath

answered Nov 11, 2013 at 15:23

thewolf

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1 Comment

AlexeiOst Over a year ago

Here is another way using Win API: stackoverflow.com/questions/4740248/…

Ekkehard.Horner · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-08 21:19:42Z

2

use assoc

assoc /?
Displays or modifies file extension associations

ASSOC [.ext[=[fileType]]]

  .ext      Specifies the file extension to associate the file type with
  fileType  Specifies the file type to associate with the file extension

and ftype

type /?
isplays or modifies file types used in file extension associations

TYPE [fileType[=[openCommandString]]]

 fileType  Specifies the file type to examine or change
 openCommandString Specifies the open command to use when launching files
                   of this type.

like

assoc .doc
.doc=OpenOffice.org.Doc

ftype OpenOffice.org.Doc
OpenOffice.org.Doc="C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\program\\swriter.exe" -o "%1"

via a script that executes those programs with .Exec.

Update:

Cut the file spec from the command:

>> sCmd = """C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\program\\swriter.exe"" -o ""%1"""
>> WScript.Echo sCmd
>> WScript.Echo Split(sCmd, """")(1)
>>
"C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\program\\swriter.exe" -o "%1"
C:\Program Files\OpenOffice.org 3\program\\swriter.exe

Update II:

Don't use .RegRead to try to find the info in this week's version of the registry; assoc and ftype are the tools your operating system provides for your problem.

edited Nov 8, 2013 at 21:19

answered Nov 8, 2013 at 20:22

Ekkehard.Horner

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4 Comments

thewolf Over a year ago

I will play around with this but seems promising! Is there a way to get ONLY the path without any additional flags?

thewolf Over a year ago

Thank you! I would +1 but can't yet ;)

thewolf Over a year ago

It's most certainly better practice and more scalable to use the built-in tools from the OS. However, using .RegRead in my case has proven to be much shorter and easier than capturing the output from assoc and ftype, and then having to split up the output anyway. I only need this for Windows 7 machines but if anyone else has a larger sample size then they should probably use the built-in tools

thewolf Over a year ago

FYI I used it the following way:

Dim WshShell, strProg, strProgPath Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") strProg = WshShell.RegRead("HKCR\.doc\") strProgPath = WshShell.RegRead("HKCR\" & strProg & "\Protocol\StdFileEditing\Server\")

David Candy · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-08 20:42:01Z

The means for opening files has changed over time. You are talking about legacy ways of opening a file, which is still the most common.

The beginning.

To support office you could put in win.ini *.doc=c:\winword.exe.

Asociations are per user and per machine with per user settings overriding machine settings.

In NT/Win 95 it was expanded. So HKCR.ext could hold the open string (\shell\open) for compat with win.ini but more typically poined to a file class, eg HKCR.txt=txtfile. Looking up HKCR\txtfile\shell\open gave you the command.

Due to programs stealing file associations this now has an layer of other associations put over it. So the command is built from above and these newer keys HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations (which also includes associations for a newer concept of a general type of file - picture or music) or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts.

For Word, it was opened using DDE (also specified at the above registry keys) rather than just a command line. That is it was started as a DDE server then had fileopen commands sent to it with the name of the file to be opened

New Ways of Opening Files.

Files are now opened using COM. The program registers IDropTarget under above keys.

Context menu handlers can override the above. They are also registered above.

The best way is to shellexec the file. It will just open like it was double clicked.

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