[mikesw]

I have win xp pro sp3 with the latest fixes.

I have numerous CD/DVD, movie/audio players, compression tools etc installed on the win xp.
The problem is is that when installing one of the above software packages it will ask via checkboxes
what file types to associate with this software package. So it may ask for .iso, or .zip, or .mpeg, or .wma
as to whether this software package should run when a file with this file extension is opened.
But I'd like to open for example an iso file with one cd/dvd tool and some other time with a different one because
it may have a feature that the other doesn't. The same applies to movies/audio or compression tools.

Is it possible to tell XP that for a given file extension to prompt with a popup when the file is clicked to present
a list of applications that one could chose from to open the file with? This is particularily important for cd/dvd
file formats and movie/audio player/writer file types. How to set this up? I realize that if I right click on the
file that is zip file, a popup window will show me winzip, or uniextract, or powerarchiver, but it doesn't seem to do
this for the cd/dvd or movie/audio formats. Thus to have poweriso and nero be presented as selections when I right click for iso files.
To have nero, windows media player 11, or windvd be shown when I right click so that I can select which one will
play the video or if I want to edit it (depending on the tool of course).

Should I during install select all the file extension types a particular app can do that is offered to me as possible file associations
and do this for every app? Will this tell XP that when I right click on a file name that it scans i.e. the registry and sees what
apps can be used to open it?

[Mordac85]

afaik, no. The whole point of a file association is to tell the OS to use a specific app with that particular file type. Now, you could delete the file association altogether and when you double click it you'll be prompted to select which app to use. Of course, if you don't pay attention you could leave the default check box checked and re-establish the file association. But on the whole this kinda defeats the purpose of a file association.

[JedMeister]

Also you can use the 'open with...' from the right-click menu. You may have to browse the first time, but once you have opened a file with a particular app it should be there under 'open with...' after that. Actually now I think about it perhaps the open with is a reg tweak to have it show all the time (not just for unassociated files). Been so long I forget.