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I have paint.net installed in my Windows 10 Pro. When I right-click a PNG file in the Windows Explorer, I see the Edit command. However, it opens the Windows Paint app, and I'd like to change it to paint.net. Is there a way to assign paint.net as the default editor for PNG files using a system applet?

Also, as I know, this is a question of registry settings, and the following key should contain the full path to the editor:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\pngfile\shell\edit\command

In my registry the (Default) value in this key is set to

"C:\Program Files\paint.net\PaintDotNet.exe" "%1"

, but the MS Paint is opened in any case.

TecMan
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  • Check in your per-user registry as well, just in case. I just tried editing HKCR\batfile\open\command: *(default)* to be Notepad++, and right-clicking a .BAT file and choosing Edit does now open Notepad++ (used to be notepad.exe). – CBHacking Sep 11 '15 at 10:49
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    @Dave: That will change the **Open** association, not the **Edit** one. The asker quite possibly wants PNGs to still open in another image *viewer* by default, and only in an image *editor* when making changes to them. – CBHacking Sep 11 '15 at 10:50
  • @CBHacking, what exactly key do you mean? – TecMan Sep 11 '15 at 10:54
  • `HKCU\Software\Classes` is basically a per-user version of `HKCR`. Check for PNG associations set there. (Random side note: `HKCR` itself is just `HKLM\Software\Classes`.) – CBHacking Sep 11 '15 at 10:58
  • @CBHacking, I do not see any special settings for PNG file in `HKCU\Software\Classes`. – TecMan Sep 11 '15 at 11:02
  • Huh. It worked instantly for me when I tried editing the Command key. I didn't even need to close regedit. Still, maybe try logging off and on again (or rebooting)? Try temporarily changing the Open command (using regedit) to PDN and see if the command at least works there? This is really odd. – CBHacking Sep 11 '15 at 11:04
  • @CBHacking, even full reboot did not help. And that `Command` key pointing to paint.net was created many days ago, not today, so it is there for a long time... – TecMan Sep 11 '15 at 11:16
  • Whatever is in `HKCU` would override anything else. – paradroid Sep 11 '15 at 11:52
  • @CBHacking, I found the answer myself. – TecMan Sep 15 '15 at 09:06

1 Answers1

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I solved my problem by myself. First I decided to find all registry values containing "mspaint.exe" to try to replace the path to MS Paint with what I need. One of the interesting keys I found was this:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\edit\command

Googled it, and the first search result was this article:

How to change the default image editor program
http://www.techwork.dk/windows-7/how-to-change-the-default-image-editor-program

Tried it, and it works! We just need to change the default value of that key to the string

"C:\Program Files\paint.net\PaintDotNet.exe" "%1"

TecMan
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