How to purge Notepad from the Windows Explorer context menu?

Question

I've installed [insert favourite text editor here] and associated it with all file extensions which by default open with notepad.exe. Still, there is a context menu entry Edit e.g. on *.txt files which still brings up Notepad.

How can I change this context menu entry to also open my editor instead of Notepad?

Answer 1

There are two places in the Windows registry that define context menu entries:

• File extension

  For *.txt files, the default value of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt points to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile, which defines the context menu entries

• Perceived type

  *.txt files have a perceived type text (see PerceivedType property in key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt), and that type defines its context menu entries at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text

If you also change the commands for the perceived type text, you should always get your favourite editor for all text files.