i have a program that kept changing my file association of a file type on every start of that program. Even though it has a setting to disable it, after every program start it'll still going to change the association to none, which is really annoying.

Is there any way to stop this?

You should report this problem to the author of the software and maybe they'll fix it in an update.

Some programs have an options to disable that from happening. What program is it?

You should report this problem to the author of the software and maybe they'll fix it in an update.

it's call qq download, it's a downloading client.

I think many users had reported this issue but they didn't seem to care, i'm suspecting that they are doing that on purpose.

You should report this problem to the author of the software and maybe they'll fix it in an update.

it's call qq download, it's a downloading client.

I think many users had reported this issue but they didn't seem to care, i'm suspecting that they are doing that on purpose.

Check with which credentials the programs writes to the registry, then either remove those credentials from the relevant Registry key (adding to it a "special" user credential in order to be not "locked out") and see if the program errors out by being denied access to that Registry key, if it doesn't you are set .

jaclaz

Check with which credentials the programs writes to the registry, then either remove those credentials from the relevant Registry key (adding to it a "special" user credential in order to be not "locked out") and see if the program errors out by being denied access to that Registry key, if it doesn't you are set .

jaclaz

can you elaborate on this? What part in the registry should i do i search on usually? Thanks

Edited August 17, 201313 yr by lansing

The actual part where file association is.

HKEY_Classes_Root

begins with them, at first there are file extensions to filetype, and then usually file associations.

Check this tool:

http://wstudios.home.xs4all.nl/Associate/

it explains quite well the structure of file association.

Mind you particular programs may have more complex structures for "right click" contextual menus and the like, but the "base" file association should be "standard".

jaclaz

i tried wAssociate, the main problem is that even though i changed the file association, after the restart of that qq downloader, it auto wipe out the file association again.

i tried wAssociate, the main problem is that even though i changed the file association, after the restart of that qq downloader, it auto wipe out the file association again.

Well, no.

The idea is that once you have the "right" file association set you remove from the key the privileges to edit/access the key, leaving access to the key ONLY allowed to a given "named" user account  (of course NOT the one you use and you might need to remove also "SYSTEM").

Though everything is possible, I doubt that that program will be able to find and impersonate another user.

Once the program will not be able to write anymore to that key (or wipe it) there are two possibilities:

1. this will cause a crash/malfunctioning of the program
2. this will be ignored and the program will continue working alright.

What I forgot to mention (my bad, I gave it for already known fact) is that HKEY_Classes_Root doesn't really "exists" , it is an on-the-fly "mirror" of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes, you might need to set the permissions there instead.

 

jaclaz

after fiddling with the permission and some researches, i finally got it to work. Add a "everyone" object and deny permission on the "set value" option.

http://www.bench3.com/2009/11/prevent-changes-to-registry-key-avoid.html

Thanks for the help.

Good

jaclaz