The following files are registry files, otherwise known as registration entries, are text-based files that can be used to add or change values in the Windows registry. You could always change these values in the registry manually if you wish, but the files will make the changes automatically for you and thus limits the technical knowledge required to make registry changes. In fact, these reg files require no knowledge whatsoever apart from being able to download and open the file.

Usually when you install a reg file, you will be making a change to the registry that will alter Windows from its default settings. However, in this particular case, the reg files in this article are going to restore the registry and thus restore Windows to its default state for each of the associated files. For instance, downloading the CMD reg file will restore the command prompt registry values to their default state, and so on.

How to Restore Default File Type Associations in Windows Vista

Download: ani (Windows animated cursor file.)

Download: aspx (A file with the ASPX file extension is an ASP.NET Source file.)

Download: AudioCD (Audio CD protocol associations.)

Download: avi (Audio Video Interleave files. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: bat (Batch files.)

Download: bmp (Bitmap image files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.)

Download: cab (Cabinet files.)

Download: chm (Microsoft compiled HTML help files.)

Download: cmd (Windows command script files.)

Download: com (MS-DOS application files.)

Download: contact (Contact file used in Windows Mail. The default program is Windows Contacts.)

Download: css (Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file used to format the contents of a Web page; contains customized, global properties for how to display HTML elements; can define the size, color, font, line spacing, indentation, borders, and location of HTML elements.)

Download: cur (Windows File Cursor animation files used for the Microsoft Windows mouse pointer image.)

Download: dat (Generic data file created by a specific application; typically accessed only by the application that created the file; may contain data in text or binary format; text-based DAT files can be viewed in a text editor.)

Download: Directory (Directory protocol associations.)

Download: dll (A Dynamic Link Library (dll) file is a support file used by one or more programs.)

Download: drive (Drive protocol associations.)

Download: exe (Executable application files.)

Download: folder (Folder protocol associations.)

Download: gif (GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image files. The default program is Internet Explorer.)

Download: hlp (Help File)

Download: htm (HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) document files. The default program is Internet Explorer.)

Download: html (HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) document files. The default program is Internet Explorer.)

Download: ico (Icon files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.)

Download: inf (Setup information files. The default program is Notepad.)

Download: jpe (JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.)

Download: jpeg (JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.)

Download: jpg (JPG (Joint Photographic Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.)

Download: js (Java Script files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe).)

Download: lnk (Shortcut link (LNK) files.)

Download: manifest (A XML file that contains information about accompanying files in the same archive.)

Download: mp3 (MP3 sound format file. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: mp4 (MPEG-4 movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: mpa (MPEG audio file. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: mpe (MPEG movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: mpeg (MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) video file. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: mpg (MPEG video file. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: msc (Mirosoft Common Console document files.)

Download: msi (Microsoft Windows Installer installation package file.)

Download: pdf (Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by a company called Adobe, which is not owned or operated by Microsoft Corp. By default, Windows operating systems do not support PDF files. This file retroes the default PDF association in Vista and any understanding of the file type will be lost. To make PDF documents readable again, you will need to install third-party software such as Adobe Reader.

Download: pif (Short for Program InFormation file, a type of file that holds information about how Windows should run a non-Windows application.)

Download: png (Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmap compression method for image files.

Download: reg (Registry files.)

Note: You may need to enable regedit before you will be able to use this REG file.

Download: rtf (Rich Text document files. The default program is WordPad.)

Download: scr (Screen Saver files.)

Download: tif (Tagged Image files Format. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.)

Download: tiff (Tagged Image files Format. The default program is Windows Photo Gallery.)

Download: tmp (Temp file. By default, this file extension does not have a program associated with it.)

Download: txt (Text document files. The default program is Notepad.)

Download: url (Internet website shortcut link. The default program is Internet Explorer.)

Download: vbs (Visual Basic Script files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe).)

Download: wav (Wave audio file.)

Download: wma (Windows Media Audio files. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: wmv (Windows Media Audio/Video file. The default program is Windows Media Player.)

Download: wsf (Windows Script Files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe).)

Download: xml (Excel Macro files. The default program is Internet Explorer.)

Download: xps (XML Paper Specification document files. The default program is XPS Viewer (C:\Windows\System32\XPSViewer\XPSViewer.exe).)

Download: xsl (A eXtensible Stylesheet Language file that defines the style of text, tables, and other objects within a XML document; similar to a .CSS file used by .HTML documents. The default program is Internet Explorer.)

Download: zip (ZIP file extensions is a archival and data compression format used to compress one or more files to reduce the size of the file. The default program is Compressed Folders.)

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