Computer Hope

Other => Reviews and recommendations => Topic started by: evilfantasy on February 04, 2010, 02:54:19 PM

Title: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: evilfantasy on February 04, 2010, 02:54:19 PM
New tool for fixing corrupted file associations.

File Association Fixer (http://www.thewindowsclub.com/file-association-fixer-for-windows-7-vista-released)
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 03:19:05 PM
VERY cool - just downloaded (along with a couple of others). Sorry Doug Knox :)
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: evilfantasy on February 04, 2010, 03:22:43 PM
I'm not sure Doug Knox tools work on the newer OS's. At least I've always been leery of trying them. SREng is a little complex but this is perfect!
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 03:24:01 PM
They do. File associations are file associations. Still, I love the look of this - hope I never have to use it :)
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: evilfantasy on February 04, 2010, 03:27:11 PM
It happens when you least expect it...  :P
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 03:28:51 PM
Just looked at it - seems only fixes about 15 different file types (no html, url, .exe, etc).
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: BC_Programmer on February 04, 2010, 03:31:50 PM
They do. File associations are file associations. Still, I love the look of this - hope I never have to use it :)

But User permissions != Administrator permissions, of which the latter is required to change values in any hive but HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 03:32:36 PM
Easy enough to take ownership if needed
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: BC_Programmer on February 04, 2010, 03:36:59 PM
Easy enough to take ownership if needed

take ownership of what?
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: evilfantasy on February 04, 2010, 03:40:05 PM
There is no exe fix. Hopefully he adds more in the near future.
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 03:40:38 PM
take ownership of what?
The registry key if needed.
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: BC_Programmer on February 04, 2010, 04:06:31 PM
The registry key if needed.

your suggesting that users use the older tools and manually visit every single registry key that those tools manipulate to take ownership of them, or more precisely, to use the convoluted permissions dialog to add their user to the group of users that can change them? are you INSANE?  :P Not to mention this involves typing out their specific User name in the form //machinename/username

of course you could completely circumvent to whole concept behind both UAC and Limited User accounts by just granting the permissions directly to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.

And actually, the better method with the older tools is pretty obvious- run as administrator. no need to change permissions at all.

As an aside: I was thinking- "doug knox... I've heard that name before" and it came to me!

he used to write a Column in one of the MSDN magazines... I'm not sure exactly which one, but I think it was "Flux". I cannot seem to find any references to this anywhere though...
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 04:14:01 PM
I'm sorry -  are you talking about a limited user account using a file association fix? If so, I misunderstood your original post (I'm sure that doesn't happen much, by the way :) ).
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: BC_Programmer on February 04, 2010, 04:19:52 PM
I'm sorry -  are you talking about a limited user account using a file association fix? If so, I misunderstood your original post (I'm sure that doesn't happen much, by the way :) ).

With Vista and 7 your always using a Limited user account- and unless you run a program as admin, it will as well.

A program can be designed to cope with this and at the very least request Administrator access but most of the time a program that isn't expecting this will simply crash with a permission denied or access denied error.
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 04:26:12 PM
Not if you run subinacl and disable uac (or set it on quiet mode) - I do both on all systems.
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: BC_Programmer on February 04, 2010, 04:28:24 PM
Not if you run subinacl and disable uac (or set it on quiet mode) - I do both on all systems.

I've never disabled UAC. the concept of not running as an administrator was a long time coming, and with previous releases was the main cause of malware infections. (you don't run Linux desktops as Root, so why does explorer run with admin privileges by default on XP and prior?
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: evilfantasy on February 04, 2010, 04:30:17 PM
Not if you run subinacl and disable uac (or set it on quiet mode) - I do both on all systems.

Shhh... We don't need to be putting ideas in peoples heads. That leaves an inexperienced user very vulnerable to malware and other junk.
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: BC_Programmer on February 04, 2010, 04:31:23 PM
Shhh... We don't need to be putting ideas in peoples heads. That leaves an inexperienced user very vulnerable to malware and other junk.

HAHAH! that's what I just said!  :P
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 04:32:42 PM
You don't need to disable it. Just run it in silent mode - which is actually what I do. And I agree - I always warn others to NEVER disable UAC
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 04:39:16 PM
Amazing the turns these threads take, isn't it?
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: evilfantasy on February 04, 2010, 04:40:52 PM
(http://bestsmileys.com/eyes/13.gif)  :D
Title: Re: File Association Fixer - Vista/Win 7
Post by: Allan on February 04, 2010, 04:50:18 PM
Exactly ;D