I downloaded some video files the other day (from punchbaby.com - very funny, check it out).
Some are mpegs and some are avis.
I had a problem with one of the avis - it wouldn’t play very well on my Windows Media Player. It does, however, play fine on my DivX player. What i would like to do is associate this file with the DivX player so that i can open it in DivX just by double-clicking. The problem is that when i do this, ALL my avi files become associated with the DivX player, which is not what i want.
In the files properties box, when i open the “Opens with” box, there is a checkbox that says “Always use this program to open these files.” The box is checked, and cannot be unchecked because it is greyed out. The presence of the box indicates to me that it might be possible to associate a single file with the DivX player, while leaving all my other avis associated with Windows Media Player. Is this indeed possible? If so, how do i go about it?
Unfortunately file associations are all or none. AFAIK there is no way to associate a single file with an application. I normally handle this by opening the application I want to use for that file, and then browse for it. Yes, it’s a lot slower than double-clicking the file, but what are you going to do?
This is probably the closest you’ll come to associating a certain file with an application in Windows:
Create a shortcut to your DiVX Player executable file and place it somewhere handy, like the Desktop.
Right-click on the DiVX shortcut icon and select “Properties.”
In the Target field, you should see something like: “C:\Program Files\DiVX\DivX Player 2.0 Alpha\DivX Player 2.0 Alpha.exe”. After the last quotation mark, type a space, another quotation mark, the path to the AVI file, the filename, then another quotation mark. So, for example, if your AVI is called “straightdope.avi” and it is in a “Cecil” folder on your C:\ drive (path: C:\Cecil), your target line should read:
“C:\Program Files\DiVX\DivX Player 2.0 Alpha\DivX Player 2.0 Alpha.exe” “C:\Cecil\straightdope.avi”
Click OK.
Whenever you want to view this movie in the DiVX player, double-click the modified shortcut.
I used to do this all the time as a technician for various applications, and it worked everytime. Hope this helps you out.
Q.E.D. - i rather suspected that this would be the case. C’est la vie!
Jberto - thanks for the information. I’ll give it a try, although on reflection i think it will probably be just as easy for me to right-click on the file, then select the DivX player from the “Open with” menu.