How to change default application associated with a media?

How to change default application associated with a media?

Based on the nature of media, Operating system usually associate some default application for all files. For example by default all images are set to open in Windows Photo Viewer on Windows. Now even if we install some other Photo viewer app, the default application associated with the images may remain same.

This blog shows how to change the default application associated with any image. Lets say on my machine images are set to open in 'Windows Photo viewer'.

I installed PSE11 on my system and now I want if I double click on any image then PSE Editor should open instead of 'Windows Photo viewer')

For Widows:
1. Right click the media (in our case the image) and select 'Open with->Choose default program' option as shown in following snapshot:

2. On doing so, Windows 'Open with dialog' will open (as shown below). If you app (in our case PSE11 Editor) is listed there, select the app. Make sure that 'Always use selected program to open this kind of file' is checked. Click on 'Ok' button.

On Windows 7 or earlier:

  

On Windows 8:

3. But in this case, PSE11 Editor is not shown in the 'Recommended Programs' list. Now you need to click on 'Browse' button and navigate to the executable file and click on 'Open' button (as shown in following snapshot).
For PSE11 Editor the executable is located at:
Win 32 bit: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 11\PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe
Win 64 bit: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 11\PhotoshopElementsEditor.exe
Mac: /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 11/Support Files/Adobe Photoshop Elements Editor

Once done, click on 'Ok' button (in dialog shown in step #2).

On Windows 8, for this step you need to click on the 'Look for another app on this PC option', which will open 'Browse' dialog as shown above and then proced as mentioned above.

For Mac:

The steps remain similar to that followed above. Attaching snapshot for reference:

Right click file to select the default app:

Click on 'Other..' option if your app is not listed here to open 'Choose Application' dialog as shown below:

Please leave your comments if you have any queries. I will get back to you as soon as possible. Any feedback on improving the quality/content of the blog is highly appreciated.

Cheers !!