How to Use the Assoc Command to Change File Associations

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This article was previously published under Q184082

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SUMMARY

This article describes how to use the Assoc command to display or change file extensions and their associations.

MORE INFORMATION

The Assoc command can be run only from a command prompt.

NOTE: When you use the Assoc command, the changes you make are immediately written to the Software registry file.

To display a list of file extensions and their associations, type assoc at a command prompt, and then press ENTER.
To display the association for a specific file extension, type assoc .<xxx> at a command prompt, and then press ENTER, where <xxx> is the file extension whose association you want to view.
To change the association for a specific file extension, type assoc .<xxx>=<file type> at a command prompt, and then press ENTER, where <xxx> is the file extension whose association you want to change, and <file type> is the program, dynamic data exchange (DDE), or OLE object you want to associate with the file extension.
To delete the association for a specific file extension, type assoc .<xxx>= at a command prompt, and then press ENTER, where <xxx> is the file extension you want to delete.

NOTE: You must type the trailing space after the equal sign (=). If you do not, the association is not deleted and you receive the following error message:
File association not found for extension .<xxx>