Removing File Associations

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hullo,
Recently, as some of you guys may know, I bought a new Vista based PC with the Home Edition of Office 2007. Most unfortunately, this edition didn't come with a copy of Publisher, so, when I did transfer my files from my old PC to my new PC, I found myself with a set of ".pub" files which I couldn't open.

Today, I decided to perform a test upon some of these mentioned files, to see if Word had the capacity to use them. When I tried this, I just received a load of random symbols and letters, and the files didn't open correctly.

Most unfortunately, doing this lead to a few problems with file extensions - all ".pub" files now automatically, and by default, open in Word. In addition, there seems no way of removing the association without assigning it to an entirely different program.

So, to conclude I am trying to find a way of removing the file's association from any program whatsoever - simply restoring it to its former unknown and disassociated status.

All help appreciated, thanks!

[Lemur]

This works in XP, and I'm figuring it will work in Vista as well.

Open a file window. Any file window. Heck, just double-click on My Computer to get in gear.

Now go to Tools / Folder Options / File Types

What you're seeing now is a list of file associations. You should be able to delete the association with "pub" from here.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Thanks for the help Lemur, but I can't seem to find the area. Although I managed to get into folder options, there doesn't seem to be a tab for changing file associations - I just received these choices:

[caravel]

Omanes,

To quickly fix this go to start, run and enter:

cmd

Next in the console enter:

assoc .pub=

This will remove the association.

[Blodrast]

Omanes: that option probably was under the "View" tab.

Cambyses II: command line ftw!

[Whacker]

REAL men use the command line.

*sheds a tear of pride*

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Thanks Cambyses, but that fails to work either - the association peculiarly remains intact. I may be doing something wrong though. Is this the correct method?

[sapi]

That looks like vista; try running cmd as an admin and doing that again (shift+right click on the program, run as administrator)

[caravel]

That should have worked, your console output is normal and does point to it working. Try doing:

assoc .pub

Post the output.

-edit: Sapi makes a good point, are you logged in as an administrator?

-edit2: BTW you can run the group policy result tool to find out (hopefully this still works in Vista), or you can check in the control panel, users. To run gpresult do the following from the console:

gpresult

Look at the bottom of the report and it will show the user groups you are a member of.

To go down the control panel route:

control userpasswords

or

control userpasswords2

for the better version.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

-edit: Sapi makes a good point, are you logged in as an administrator?

Yes, although when running it didn't go through User Account Control security permissions - probably signifying that I am technically speaking running it as a standard user. I'll try running it from its location on the hard drive as an admin. Thanks sapi for bringing this up.

-edit-
Sadly, it still has no effect.

When typing "assoc .pub" the console responds with the words ".pub=".

[caravel]

Have you tried double clicking on a .pub file since doing this?

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Yes, although everything is the same as it was before - it opens up in Word along with a combination of strangely unreadable symbols.

[caravel]

Ok Omanes,

Ensuring you're logged in as an administrator, let's go into the registry and try to fix it. Go to start, run and enter

regedit

browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts

Find the key called ".pub" and subkey "openwithprogids" and click on it and provide a screenshot of the right pane. Then do the same for "openwithlist" if it exists.

-Edit: openwithlist is probably the most relevant in your case come to think of it.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Selecting "openwithprogids" provides me with this:

Opening "openwithlists" shows me this:

[caravel]

Delete the .pub key and it's contents, be careful not to delete anything else. Produce a registry backup first if in doubt.

Next go to "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pub" and delete it - just the .pub key nothing else. (If you look at it you should see it is a "pub_auto_file".). Exit regedit when you're done and reboot.

The next time you double click a .pub file it should ask you which program you want to open it with, you can cancel this as you don't have publisher installed.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Thanks ever so much Cambyses, both for your patience and your assistance. It's working perfectly

[Lemur]

Now that's settled, may I ask a pressing question? Who the hell uses Microsoft Publisher?

[caravel]

Now that's settled, may I ask a pressing question? Who the hell uses Microsoft Publisher?

Those that can't afford QuarkXpress perhaps. Though of course vector programs such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw can do anything better than Publisher can, that's still at a cost.

[Lemur]

Las I checked Adobe was practically giving away InDesign, part of their bid to unseat Quark as the reigning champion. The "upgrade" version can be bought almost anywhere for under two bills, and I'm pretty sure it's loose on the definition of "upgrade."

Anyway, I'm sure there are upstanding members of society who pay their taxes and love their pets who also use Microsoft Publisher. I just had to take a poke.