Associating File Types (Portable File Applications)

[cajhin]

I say YAY to more PFA functionality. This is the one area where Windows still annoys me, and where I hope for improvements in XY.

Actually, I don't use a USB stick; but I've maintained file associations again and again and again, with every new Windows install and every new box, and I stopped wasting my time long ago.

XY allows me to configure file types once, and use it on any PC I use. I love it.

What I'm hoping for...


1. Put "Open With" into the context menu.
File menu and toolbar is usable, but the context menu is where the "XY Open With" item really belongs.
Now you have two "Open with items" in the context menu, but I don't care. Just name one of them "XY Open" or something.

(Wishful thinking: Ideally, but this is probably a lot of nasty work, the Windows Open With and all Windows entries should be a sub-item of XY Open. That way, I would get rid of all the useless cluttered Windows defaults like "Open in Media Player", "Play", "Add to playlist" etc. I don't use Media Player. I don't use any Windows default applications)



2. New subitem "Show all >"
I would really appreciate an Open With subitem that lists ALL applications that exist in the PFA list.

Use case: IrfanView supports 50? file types, most of them quite obscure. I don't want to define them all, only the 5 common file types. Now, in the rare case that I want to open a tga, tiff or jp2, I could use the Open with menu and send it to IrfanView.

The same goes for foobar and audio files, etc.

Another typical case: common archives are associated with WinRAR. In the rare case where WinRAR chokes, I want to try the file with 7zip.
These cases are too rare, it is not worth it to define every possible application with every possible extension.


3. Maybe Later? Associate icons
Ok, this is probably a lot of work, too.
It would be awesome if I could define the icons for my common file types.
Right now, many files I see in XY have no icon at all, and most other files have some random icon depending on which greedy application was installed last.
Oh, how nice it would be if I could define an icon for image files once, and see that very icon on every PC from now until eternity...


4. Probably never... 'publish' associations
Ok, going on a tangent here, this is not really file manager stuff.
It would be very very very sweet if XY could push all its file associations into the Windows registry, to overwrite whatever file associations are defined there. (Admitted: I would really hate to write that code...)
Install Windows, copy your customized XY over, click 'Publish File Associations' and voila, all common files look and work the way you want them to.
(The one issue with XY associations is that e.g. WinRAR does not know them, so it still uses the Windows file associations, which I won't maintain anymore).

[jacky]

1. Put "Open With" into the context menu.

I don't know if Don will do that, but I can tell you that it is planned that in a future version you can assign a script to a middle-click. So you will be able to use a script file to popup a menu, and thus create your own middle-context-menu !
This menu will be must faster to popup since no shell extension are required, and you will be able to put an item for the POM (Portable Openwith Menu) right there as you please

4. Probably never... 'publish' associations

I don't see this being implemented, since XY is portable and takes pride not to mess with the registry!
Sure, I see your point, sometimes I wish every other app would use XY's PFA or Tree's highlighting features, but you can't have everything

[admin]

Well, well, cajhin ...

(a) I'm not so impressed with those ideas,
(b) bad timing: PFA/POM now is in a good working state and needs some time to ripen through experience; then, after say 3 months, one can think about possible improvements.

Never mind,
Don