my current understanding is it that the file type associations manager integrated into Directory Opus is supposed to list all file types currently associated with some application, and make them available to editing. However, when browsing through the list, I can't find a number of file types (among them AVI, FLV, etc.) currently associated on my system with the Media Player Classic (Home Cinema) application. Did I miss something about what the association manager is supposed to be, or is this some kind of error? If so, how could it have possibly come about?
I think, Opus doesn´t lists files types on it´s own, but those who are assigned & handled by windows. You can add them manually, either by creating a new "system" file type, or inside the appropriate file type group (for example audio files).
Thank you for you answer. The reason for my posting was that there seem to be some files types which, despite being already (sic) correctly registered in Windows and handled correctly both in Windows Explorer and in Directory Opus, are still not listed (and hence not editable) by the file type associations manager integrated within DOpus.
Explorer (particularly since Vista) has "extra" ways of registering filetypes besides the standard HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT method, which is the only method the Opus Filetype editor supports. However I'd say it would be pretty unusual for your AVI filetype to not have been registered this way, since Windows sets that up by default on installation.
Have a look in regedit at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.avi and see what the default value of the key is - if there's an entry there, then Opus should show the filetype.
The default value of HKCR.avi is unspecified, and it's perceived type is set to 'video'. I've always found the file type association system a bit perplexing, and I wasn't aware that they've added yet a new mechanism. Does this all mean that the Media Player Classic folks registered the type in an unusual way? Would you recommend any prodecure how I could induce a state in which DOpus is aware of those video types?
Change the default value to WMP11.AssocFile.AVI (assuming you have Windows Media Player 11 installed).
I'm convinced Microsoft have a team dedicated to the task of making the filetype system more complex in every Windows release.
What MPC did was probably fine. Where things went wrong is that something deleted the file type class (or at least the pointer to it from the file type extension), which shouldn't be done. May have happened when something was uninstalled.
Well, the point where the association ID probably got deleted was when I uninstalled Windows Media Player. However, after this step I installed Media Player Classic and set up the associations in its options dialog, and the associations did indeed work correctly. This is why I guessed that my registry should have been in some state in which DOpus could have been aware that the filetype is registered on my system.
I was curious and monitored the registry activity of MPC, and as it turned out it doesn't set up anything in HKCR at all, but rather seems to rely on HKCU/Sofware/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/FileExts. I don't know if this is a standard procedure or if this maybe could be something for DOpus to consider in the future.
At this point it seems to me (correct me if I'm wrong) that there is no way of getting DOpus aware of MPC file type association data. I can only go ahead and set it all up manually either in DOpus or Windows Explorer. The reason why I wanted to build on the MPC built-in association setup was that this way I wouldn't have to dig up a lot of different file type icons.
MPC has effectively associated itself with the file extensions without ensuring that there is a file class for those extensions. There usually is a class but if you delete it (by uninstallign WMP) then there won't be.
Which is fine, I guess, but unusual and means the Opus file type editor won't list the extension.
I wonder if the Opus file type editor could be improved to show all the non-file-class data without the result being almost as complex as using regedit? It is a pain having to dig through the registry for some file type stuff but the way it works is inherently messy.
To bring this topic back up: I've had some time to look shortly into the Windows 7 registry today, and something suggested to me that there really could be a new(?) mechanism which DOpus isn't aware of at this point. At least I have now induced a state in which windows explorer shows file type icons for an extension which are different from the ones shown in DOpus. I guess this shouldn't be possible at all, should it?
Could it be that DOpus ignores all association information stored in HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer? At least that is where Media Player Classic initially sets up its file class ID and class description string. In Windows Explorer, everything works fine then: The custom icon shows up and the correct file type description ("Some Document Type") is displayed. However, DOpus only comes up with the default icon (empty file overlayed with the program icon) and the default description ("xyz-FILE").
Sorry, just disregard the above.. I have only now noticed jon's reply about which registry information the DOpus file type association editor supports. ..thanks again for clearing it up, cheers.
..thanks again for clearing it up, cheers.