Normally, when you want to open a file, be it a document or a picture, you just double-click it. This will automatically open the file in its default program or app. For instance, a picture will likely open in the Pictures app, which is the standard image viewer on Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers.
However, there are times when you’ll want to open a file using a different program than the default. Sticking with our example, you might prefer to open your picture in MS Paint or another image editing program instead of the Pictures app.
How To Open A File Using A Different Program
Whenever you double click on a file, Windows will open it in the default application for that file type. For example, text documents will open in Notepad, pictures in the Pictures app and music in Media Player.
Sometimes though, you’ll want to open the file in a different program from the default one. So how do you do it?
Let’s take the example of opening an image file.
Double left clicking on the picture will open it in the default application for images, which is generally the Pictures app.
Open With
When you want to open a file in a different app to the Windows default, right click on the file instead of left clicking it. That’ll open the Options Menu.
On the menu, hover the mouse pointer over Open With. On some versions of Windows 11 you may need to click Show More Options first.
Windows will open a second menu (sub menu) with other programs and applications that are capable of opening that file type. Just click the one that you require.
Changing Default App Using Open With.
You might want to change the default application for any given file format and you do this in the Open With menu.
Right click on your chosen file, hover over Open With and then left click Choose Another App.
Select an app by left clicking it once, then click Always button at the bottom of the screen. After that any files of the same file type will open in the application that you’ve chosen.
The Default Affects Every File
Choosing the Always option will change the default application in Windows for every file of the same type.
For example if you chose to open your picture in Paint and then selected Always, every picture of the same format on your PC would then open in Paint, not just the one you’ve selected.
Summary.
Opening files in different programs to the default application is a very common thing to do. Different apps have different capacities so it makes sense to use the best one for the job in hand.
