This is another addition to the newly added Windows Basics section of our site. This tutorial will show you how to use Windows XP’s Set Program Access and Defaults to set which programs will open for certain tasks. If you are tired of your MP3’s always opening with Windows Media Player, or your email defaulting to Outlook Express this tutorial is for you.
First go to start > Set Program Access and Defaults (note: This can also be found under Add/Remove Programs)
The set Program Access and Defaults Window will be displayed.
Here you have 4 options. I will explain each a little. Computer Manufacturer is the settings chose by your computer makers (you may not have this option on all computers). Basically it will use your current default and allow access to all other programs.
The Microsoft Windows option will default all programs to Microsoft programs.
Non-Microsoft will use any non-Microsoft application and remove access to the Microsoft version.
The choice that we are concerned with is the final one: Custom. Here you can decide which programs to use as your default and which programs to allow access to. For example if you want your mail to always open with outlook (even when you click a mailto link on the internet) then you will want to select it as y our default. If you do not want a program to be allowed to open uncheck the box that says “enable access”.
When you are finished making changes hit Ok to exit.
Johnathan Ward is an experienced developer and consultant that writes tutorials to help other developers. In his day job, he is an IBM Watson Consultant with several years of experience deploying and customizing Watson Explorer solutions.