Switch Off Use the Web Annoyance

Topics Internet on April 24th, 2008

Whenever Windows stumbles across a file type it doesn’t recognise you are will see a message box that says Windows cannot open this file’ and gives you the option to ‘Use the Web Service’, to find the necessary program. I don’t know about you but I can’t recall a single instance where it has worked and it’s usually much quicker just to Google the file name or extension. Well, thanks to the clever folk at ‘howtogeek’ here’s a way to zap that dialogue box and go straight to the Programs list, that you would get if you chose the second option. It works in both XP and Vista and involves editing the Registry, so pay attention, and bear in mind the usual warnings and disclaimers about backing up the Registry first, and not messing with it if you don’t know what you are doing.

Begin by opening the Registry Editor (‘regedit’ in Run on the Start menu) and pop along to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\

If there is a key called Explorer skip the next step, if not create one by right-click Policies then New > Key and rename it ‘Explorer’ (without the quotes). The Explorer key should now be open in the right hand pane, right click into it and select New > DWORD Value, rename that to: ‘NoInternetOpenWith’, right-click it, select Modify and change the Value to 1. (Changing the Value to 0, or deleting the key will reset the hack). That’s it, close Regedit, there’s no need for a reboot, so all that remains is to try it out by creating a file with an unrecognised extension and see what happens whenyou try to open it.