Set NPP as default for files with no extension

decoderman

I’m looking for a way to set all files with no extension to open in NPP.
hosts, htaccess (without the dot) and many more files have no extension like .txt for text files.

I looked up and down at DuckDuckGo and Google but have had no luck finding a working way.

I did have it working before I completely removed NPP 32-bit but now with 64-bit install I can’t get it to work again. Every time I want to open such a extension less file I get presented with “How do you want to open this file” screen. Since there is no file extension, there is no way to set the default program to open it with in Windows 10.

Here are two solutions, both appear to no longer work in Windows 10 v1709:

http://www.itprotoday.com/management-mobility/how-do-i-create-default-association-files-no-extension
https://superuser.com/questions/13653/how-to-set-the-default-program-for-opening-files-without-an-extension-in-windows

Claudia Frank

@decoderman

I don’t know the real solution but maybe a way to track down which keys in the registry needs to be changed.
What about installing ProcMon and recording whats get looked up in registry when double clicking a file with
extension which gets opened by npp and one without extension? Maybe this reveals what needs to be done.

Sorry for not being more helpful.

Cheers
Claudia

decoderman

Solved!
I have Directory Opus as the default File Explorer on all my Windows machines.
Directory Opus lets you set how to handle files with no extensions and open them with the program of your choice.
I have had it set in it’s settings to use NPP but since I removed the 32-bit version that path was no longer available as the handler.

Here’s the magic setting in Directory Opus:
https://resource.dopus.com/t/associate-with-no-file-extension/9592