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How can I customize the name of the program visible in the Open With... context menu in Windows XP and 7?

For example: I have 3 versions of a product named XYZ installed on Windows; .x files are associated to xyz.exe (COM registration).

All versions of the product have the same .exe name. Now in the Open With... context menu, it shows XYZ program 3 times (3 versions are installed) but with the same name.

How do I make it show the version as well? I.e. XYZ V1.0, XYZ V2.0, etc.

Danny Beckett
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Sanketh
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3 Answers3

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Save the below as a .reg file, modify it to your needs, and import to the registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VLCMoveOnEnd.exe]
"FriendlyAppName"="VLC (Move on end)"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VLCMoveOnEnd.exe\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VLCMoveOnEnd.exe\shell\open]
"FriendlyAppName"="VLC (Move on end)"

Taken from my answer to the same question.

Community
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Danny Beckett
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0

I had the same issue with a couple different versions of blender.

I read the answer above, but I don't think that saving "the below as a .reg file" is the fastest way.

1) Navigate to

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\**YOUR PROGRAM HERE***.exe\shell\open]

2) With the "open" folder selected, right click to add a new string value called FriendlyAppName

3) Change the Value data to your desired app name

Picture steps :)

Eric Nelson
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I don't know if the accepted answer actually answers the question. I have the same problem where I have different versions of the same software, all with xyz.exe.

Maybe it worked for older versions of Windows but for Windows 10, adding a "FriendlyAppName" value to the "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\xyz.exe" key will still result in all versions of the software having the same name, although now you have the wrong version number for all but one of them.

Note: You can find the registry by typing in 'regedit' in the start search bar.

After much searching and testing, the MUICache seems to be where Windows grab the FriendlyAppName.

A warning note: I'm not sure whether changing values in the MUICache has any adverse effects and also not sure how often the cache gets refreshed and the changes you made gets rewritten.

Key:

  • [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MUICache]
  • There may be other MUICache key locations in the registry, not entirely sure

Values:

  • "[Install_Folder 1.0]xyz.exe.FriendlyAppName"="xyz 1.0"
  • "[Install_Folder 2.0]xyz.exe.FriendlyAppName"="xyz 2.0"
  • etc...

Back to the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\xyz.exe, if renaming .exe files doesn't break anything, you could rename them to have the version numbers e.g. xyz_1.0.exe.

Then you can add HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\xyz_version_num.exe keys with the correct FriendlyAppName values.

All that being said, the installers of software that will most likely have multiple versions installed should just take care of this for us instead of us having to modify the registry ourselves...

cechow
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