Ftype command

Updated: 11/12/2023 by Computer Hope
ftype command

The ftype command displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations.

Availability

The ftype command is a Recovery Console command that is available in the following Microsoft operating systems.

Ftype syntax

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

Type ftype without parameters to display the current file types that have open command strings defined. When ftype is invoked with only a file type, it displays the current open command string for that file type. Specify nothing for the open command string, and the ftype command deletes the open string for the file type. Within an open command string %0 or %1 are substituted with the file name being launched through the association. %* gets all parameters and %2 gets the 1st parameter, %3 the second, etc. %~n gets all the remaining parameters starting with the nth parameter, where n may be between 2 and 9, inclusive. For example:

ASSOC .pl=PerlScript
FTYPE PerlScript=perl.exe %1 %*

would allow you to invoke a Perl script as follows:

script.pl 1 2 3

To eliminate the need to type the extensions, then execute the following code:

set PATHEXT=.pl;%PATHEXT%

The script could be invoked as follows:

script 1 2 3

Ftype examples

See above Microsoft examples in the syntax for examples of how this command can be used.