For one, any custom context menu items you??™ve
defined for a file type vanish if the corresponding extension ever shows up in
the UserChoice key, with no means of retrieval without you having to manually
edit the Registry. And the old trick of reinstalling an application to restore
its file types won??™t work if the UserChoice key is involved (unless the installer
is smart enough to deal with the UserChoice key).
The solution is to open the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer, and delete the
FileExts key altogether. This will eliminate all UserChoice keys while leaving
your file types intact. Thereafter, refrain from using the Open With menu or
Control Panel to modify your file types, and your file associations will continue
to behave as you expect.
Now, there??™s another, less obvious facet to the UserChoice key, one that may
be a possible benefit for PCs with more than one user account. Traditional file
types are stored in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key, which is a subset of HKEY_
LOCAL_MACHINE; this means your file types are the same for all users on your
PC. But the UserChoice keys are buried in HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch, allowing
each user to to have his or her own set of overrides. Of course, you can still
delete your own FileExts key without affecting another user??™s overrides, but
any subsequent changes you make to the file types in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT will
be put into action for all users right away.
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