| Windows File Associations | |
| Orphaned files | |
As we've seen thus far, if a file extension is completely removed from a filename, it will no longer be associated with a program. Any attempts to open such a file will result in the followimg dialog box being displayed:
It is important to remember that while this series has focused purely on file extension for identifying file/program associations, the parent program is only capable of opening files that were created for or by a program of the same type. This was discussed previously using a .TXT file and the Bitmap graphics program Paint. As demonstrated, Paint is unable to open a .TXT file and will continue to refuse to open it even if it were renamed with the .BMP extension. This is because regardless of the filename, the actual file is still a .TXT file, not a .BMP.
In the example above, if we then choose “Select the program from a list”, we will return to a similar dialog to the Change dialog we saw previously, at which point we would be tasked (perhaps via trial and error) with finding the appropriate program with which to associate the file.
