Windows 7 [SOLVED]Opening Text File Opens Command Prompt Instead

hawkeye62 · Jul 31, 2014

Hi all:

I have the strangest problem. If I double click a .txt file, it opens a Command Prompt window rather than the .txt file! If I use right click, open with, choose default program, the check box for "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" is grayed out. If I select Notepad the file will open with no problems, but there is no way to set Notepad as the default program. No where in file properties is there any mention of the cmd.exe program.

If I change the file extension to .rtf or .doc, it opens the file with no problems.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks, Jim

hawkeye62 · Aug 1, 2014

Thanks for your reply! Well, I got it to work with a slight difference from your method. Your method still would not change from Command Prompt to anything else. But, I went to the option to set default programs. I changed Wordpad to include .txt files as the default program. Then I closed Control panel and tried double click on a .txt file. It opened with Wordpad. Then I used your method to change Wordpad to Notepad and now it works properly.

Many thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Jim

Trouble · Jul 31, 2014

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Default Programs\Set Associations (Associate a file type or protocol with a program)
Scroll all the way down to .txt and see what it says.
If it's anything other than notepad, click the change program button

hawkeye62 · Aug 1, 2014

Thanks for your reply! Well, I got it to work with a slight difference from your method. Your method still would not change from Command Prompt to anything else. But, I went to the option to set default programs. I changed Wordpad to include .txt files as the default program. Then I closed Control panel and tried double click on a .txt file. It opened with Wordpad. Then I used your method to change Wordpad to Notepad and now it works properly.

Many thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Jim

Trouble · Aug 1, 2014

Glad to hear that you managed to work it out and thanks for posting back and updating your thread with that information.
It will likely prove helpful to others.
Regards
Randy

Windows 7 [SOLVED]Opening Text File Opens Command Prompt Instead

hawkeye62

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Trouble

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