Making UltraEdit the default editor on Windows 7

Making UltraEdit the default editor on Windows 7

3

    Oct 18, 2013#1

    Hi!
    How can I make UltraEdit as my default editor in Windows 7? Right now its Notepad, but I want to change it to UltraEdit.
    Can anyone help me on this please.
    Regards,
    Vivek pandey

    6,602548
    Grand MasterGrand Master
    6,602548

      Oct 18, 2013#2

      Use in UltraEdit Advanced - Configuration - File Associations to associate those file types to UltraEdit which should be opened in UltraEdit. You need administrator privileges if you want to do this for all accounts otherwise the association is done only for your account.

      Using this method makes it possible to undo a file assocation by opening this configuration dialog again and remove an association.
      Best regards from an UC/UE/UES for Windows user from Austria

      3

        Oct 18, 2013#3

        Hi Mofi,
        Thanks for reply, but still it is not default vi editor, when i am opening any .txt file its opened via notepad only. i need to make ultraedit as default.
        Please suggest if any other option you have.

        Regards,
        Vivek Pandey

        6,602548
        Grand MasterGrand Master
        6,602548

          Oct 18, 2013#4

          How do you open text files which are opened with Notepad instead of UltraEdit? With a double click on the file in Windows Explorer or any other file manager?

          The method with the file associations does not work for applications which call Notepad.exe with the file to open as parameter. Such applications often offers to configure the editor to use and Notepad is just the default if nothing other is configured by the user of such an application.

          Replacing Notepad.exe itself with an application having the file name Notepad.exe is no good idea as Microsoft and other system/security protection applications do not like that for security reasons.

          There is the great tool ueFastStart which is designed for quickly passing a file name to a running instance of UltraEdit or starting UltraEdit with a file name if there is no running instance. This tool was written mainly for Total Commander, but works also from Windows Explorer.

          It would be possible to replace Notepad.exe by ueFastStart.exe by renaming Notepad.exe to a different name and put into the Windows directory ueFastStart.exe with file name Notepad.exe. But I strongly advise you against doing this because of the Windows system files protection and Windows Side by Side mechanism. Notepad.exe is a Windows system component which should not be replaced by another application with file name changed to Notepad.exe. If you run a search for notepad.exe with full administrator privileges including system and hidden directories you will find several notepad.exe in Windows directory and its subdirectories.

          So I recommend again associating to UltraEdit all file types you want to open in UltraEdit and reconfigure those applications which start Notepad.exe directly to start uedit32.exe instead (or ueFastStart.exe).

          I have found out in the meantime that UltraEdit makes the file associations in Windows registry now always in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes and never in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes even if the user account has full administrator privileges. That's in general the better method, but not good for users using multiple accounts on same computer.

          You can change the file associations also with Windows itself. But be aware that you have to manually restore the file associations made with Windows in case of uninstalling UltraEdit permanently. Open Windows Control Panel, click at top right corner on View by: Category and select Large icons (or small icons depending on screen resolution), click on Default Programs, click on Associate a file type or protocol with a program. You get now displayed all file extensions (and protocols) registered in Windows registry and select another application for opening files of a specific type. UltraEdit should be already in the list of Other Programs which must be just expanded by clicking on [+] symbol (or you browse to ueFastStart.exe in case you want to use this tool for opening a file always quickly in an already running instance of UE).
          Best regards from an UC/UE/UES for Windows user from Austria

          3

            Oct 18, 2013#5

            Thanks a lot Mofi for your support. Now it is working fine. :P :lol: