I've been having this problem ever since I bought this PC. Whenever I try to open an RTF file, it says that it doesn't know what program to use, so I go into the program list and select "wordpad," as well as checking the "always use this to open this type of file" box. However, regardless of that, the next time I try opening one, it says "windows cannot find a program for this file," or such. In older versions of windows, you could go into the folders, go to tools, then folder options, and a few tabs to the right, there would be a list of file types, and you could manually choose what program to use when opening them. However, in Vista, that option seems to be missing. How do I get it to remember what to use with rtf files? All other files work fine, but not the rts extension. Thanks in advance.

No. The option isn't missing it's still there in different place under a different name - Windows Default Programs. See the article below - it's covered under the section "Associate a file type or protocol with a program." http://www.windowsvistauserguide.co... In your case something must have happened that caused this problem (unable to associate RTF with wordpad). i_Xp/VistaUser

Thanks for the reply and help. I opened it up and looked for the RTF file extension, and now I know why it wasn't working. It looks like "rtf" isn't even listed in the long, long list of file extensions. I tried alphabetizing the extensions, no luck. So I tried sorting them by full name, still no luck. How can I get rtf to be in the list?

It appear that your windows registry may be damaged by a corrupt installation or uninstallation, a virus, or user error - otherwise you would not be having this problem. By the way didn't you ask the same question about the same issue last December? In that case how come you never followed up with the December post? http://www.computing.net/answers/wi... i_Xp/VistaUser

Do you have Wordpad.exe present in your "ProgramFiles\Windows NT\Accessories" sub-directory? Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!

Yeah, I just checked.

http://www.winhelponline.com/articl... http://www.windowsvistauserguide.co... http://www.yoingco.com/set_protocol... Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!