Creating and Registering a New File Type

If you want, you can create a file of an unregistered file type simply by specifying an extension that hasn’t been used. You won’t normally need to do this, because any program you install on Windows should automatically register its own file types. But you may sometimes need to use this technique for a program that was designed for an earlier version of Windows and that can’t install itself successfully on Windows Vista. You may be able to get the program running by copying an existing installation across to your Windows Vista computer - but that probably won’t include details of the file types.

new document it automatically creates under a name that uses the extension you want - for example, “Example.888” if you need to use the 888 extension. You must enter the filename and extension within double quotation marks, because otherwise Notepad automatically assigns the .txt extension, which is associated with the TXT file type. Exit Notepad once you’ve created the file.

Now open an Explorer window to the folder in which you created the file, change to Details view, and you’ll see the .888 extension or whatever extension you chose displayed. Explorer decides that the file type for this file is “888 File”; you’ve created a new file type.

Now you need to tell Windows which program to use for opening this file type.

1. Double-click the file in Explorer. Wait while Windows consults the Registry about the file type and comes up dry. Windows then displays the Windows Cannot Open This File dialog box.

2. Choose the Select a Program from a List of Installed Programs option button. Windows displays a slightly different version of the Open With dialog box, as shown here.

3. In the Type a Description That You Want to Use for This Kind of File text box, enter the name you want to assign to the file type. Make it as concise and descriptive as possible.

4. In the Programs list box, select the program you want to associate with the file type. If the program isn’t listed, click the Browse button and use the resulting Open With dialog box to identify it.

5. Select the Always Use the Selected Program to Open This Kind of File check box.

6. Click the OK button. Windows creates the file type, creates Registry entries for it, and opens the file in the specified program. Now, when you double-click a file of your new file type, Windows opens the file using the program you chose.

Opening a File with a Program Other than the Associated Program

Once you have the correct file association in place, double-clicking a file opens it in the associated program. Sometimes you may want to open the file in a different program. For example, you might want to use the Word Viewer which you can download from the Microsoft website instead of Word to open a DOC file just in case the file contains malware that your antivirus program has missed. To open a file with a program other than the associated program, take the following steps:

1. Right-click the file and choose Open With from the context menu. Windows displays the Open With dialog box. If Windows displays an Open With submenu , you can simply select the program if it’s listed; if not, select the Choose Default Program item.

2. In the list box, select the program with which to open the file. If the program you want to use does not appear in either the Recommended Programs list or the Other Programs list, click the Browse button, use the second Open With dialog box to choose the program, and then click the OK button.

3.If you want Windows to create an Open With submenu for this file type and place an item for this program and the default program for this file type on the submenu, select the Always Use the Selected Program to Open This Kind of File check box.

4. Click the OK button. Windows closes the Open With dialog box and opens the file with the program you chose.

If you selected the Always Use the Selected Program to Open This Kind of File check box in step 3, Windows adds an Open With submenu to the context menu for the file type.

Understanding how Windows Vista’s sharing works Windows Vista encourages you to create a separate user account for each person who uses the computer. Windows keeps each user’s folder separate from other users’ and protects the contents of each user’s folder. An Administrator user can view any user’s folder. You can share files or folders by placing them in the Publicfolder which is always shared or by setting up sharing on individual files or folders.

Setting up sharing and discovery To let users of other computers see the files and folders your computer is sharing, you must enable discovery. You can then choose whether to share files and folders, your computer’s Public folder, your computer’s printer, and your media library. You can also decide whether to limit sharing to people who have a user account on your computer.

Sharing files and folders To share a file or folder with all other users of your computer or network, place the file or folder in your computer’s Public folder. To share a file or folder only with specific users, select the file or folder, click the Share button on the toolbar, and then use the File Sharing dialog box to select the users and specify which level of permissions to give them.

Seeing which files and folders you’re sharing To see which files and folders you’re sharing, choose Start Network, click the Network and Sharing Center button on the toolbar, and then click the Show Me All the Files and Folders I Am Sharing link. In the Shared by Me window that Windows Vista displays, you can choose to stop sharing files or folders.

Working with file associations, file extensions, and file types Windows normally manages file types, file extensions, and their associations with programs for you, but if you find that the wrong program opens when you double-click a file in an Explorer window, you may need to change the program associated with a file type. To do so, choose Start Default Programs, click the Associate a File Type or Protocol with a Program link, select the file type, select the program, and then click the OK button.

which the data is stored, follow these steps:

1. Close any other programs you’re running. This step is optional, but it allows the conversion to run unhindered. Also, you’ll need to reboot your computer twice during the conversion.

2. Choose Start All Programs Accessories Command Prompt. Windows opens a Command Prompt window.

3. Issue a convert command for the appropriate drive. The syntax for the convert command for converting a drive to NTFS is convert drive: /FS:NTFS, where drive: is the letter of the drive to convert. For example, the following command converts the D: drive:

convert d: /FS:NTFS

4. Give your computer some time to perform the conversion, and reboot it when Windows asks you to. The convert command takes a while to run, depending on how big the drive is and how much it contains. You should know a couple of other things about it:

• convert needs a modest amount of space for the conversion, so the disk can’t be stuffed to the gills with files when you convert it. If the disk is stuffed - which isn’t a great idea anyway - you just need to move some of the files off the drive temporarily while you perform the conversion. You can then move the files back onto the drive, and Windows will store the moved files using NTFS.

• If you want the files and folders on the converted drive to have no security on them, add the /NoSecurityflag to the command. You won’t usually want to do this, but it may be useful in special circumstances.

• Converting the system volume to NTFS requires two reboots. The conversion happens after the first reboot, and Windows then reboots itself again.