Re: Detecting installed applications for specific file type

I haven't looked at this in several years, but my memory is that no more than one
application is regsitered per file extension. So even if you have twenty programs, only
one is the program that is launched by double-clicking the file of the appropriate
extension.
joe

On 26 Jan 2006 10:32:56 -0800, "Erik Jälevik" <erikjalevik@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I'm aware this might not be an MFC question as such, but I can't find
>any other group that seems suitable either so here goes:
>
>I'd like to discover what music player applications are installed on
>the machine on which my program is running. I was thinking it should be
>possible to backtrack from say the .mp3 file extension and retrieve all
>programs that have registered an ability to open this file type.
>
>The documentation on file associations reveals that they live in
>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT where each extension has a default app plus a list of
>other apps that can open it listed under the OpenWithList key.
>
>However, on my system, this only lists Winamp as the default player and
>Windows Media Player in the OpenWithList. I also have the VLC media
>player installed but it doesn't show up anywhere under the .mp3 key.
>
>So my question is, is there a good way to find all applications capable
>of handling a certain file type on a system without resorting to a
>brute force search for filenames of known applications?
>
>Thanks,
>Erik
Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: newcomer@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm
.

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