Windows Keeps Asking Me To Select An App To Open Files

Hi Oyesiku,

Thanks for your post in Microsoft Community.

In your description, you often encountered problems when opening some files that asked you to choose the way to open them.

I noticed that you checked the default open method for these files and appreciate your efforts and attempts to resolve this issue.

I do understand the current inconvenience and chagrin of often having to manually select the opening method.

Did this issue first appear with the manual?

Did it come after an update?

We have determined that it may be an error in the configuration file for some current systems, or an error in the account configuration file.

To determine if this is related to an account profile error, please refer to the following link to create a new local administrator account

Manage user accounts in Windows - Microsoft Support

Check if the same issue is present in the new local account.

If the problem still exists, then please refer to the following steps to perform a system file check

1. Search for CMD, find Command Prompt, right click on it and select Run as administrator mode.

2. Enter the following commands one by one, please make sure to execute the next command after the previous one is completed.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

SFC /Scannow

3. After the scan is complete, you can check the scanning information to see if the problem has been detected and fixed.

If the problem still exists, please refer to the following link for in-place upgrade.

Disclaimer: Let’s try performing an in-place install or in-place upgrade which will refresh your Windows files and operating system without removing files or applications. That being said, we always recommend that if you have important data, you should back it up before making large system changes. If you want to back up your data first, please do so. Once you are done backing up, you can follow the steps in the following guides:

How to run In-place upgrade in Windows 11 - Microsoft Community

Please try the above scenarios and let me know the results and I will provide you further assistance based on your results.

Thank you for your understanding and support.

Best regards,

Zev - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

I've had the same problem crop up in the past week or two.

It asks each time for xml files, suggesting a rogue app is trying to snaffle it and Windows Defender isn't doing its job.

This fixed it for me.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4171-disable-you-have-new-apps-can-open-type-file.html#option2

You will need to open an admin command prompt and type gpedit.msc if running as a normal user.

Your issue is unrelated to my issue.

I believe the correct approach is to add a registry key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
"NoNewAppAlert"=dword:00000001

For example by running a Admin Command Prompt (right-click the icon and select "Run as Administrator") and then running:

REG ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer /v NoNewAppAlert /t REG_DWORD /d 1

Might need a reboot.

Regards

Jon

My issue has nothing to do with new applications being installed or alerts to use new apps. Without installing any new apps, every 1 to 2 weeks, Windows will ask to confirm using the current default app to open files if the current default is not a Microsoft app. This is clearly intended to push people to use Microsoft apps and I want to know if there is a way to disable it.

Your situation is I believe exactly the one this registry entry will solve. It seems to have solved the same thing for me...
Specifically this cropping up with annoying frequency despite new apps not being installed, although Windows updates may well silently increase the version number of many MS apps:

I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

Excellent! This fixed the problem for me. Thanks