SOUND ON SOUND

[ef37a]

Is there a way to stop programs e.g. VLC from changing the appearance of an audio file when exported from say Samplitude?

Ever since an update for VLC it has converted Samplitude files to it own 'traffic cone' icon. I have become used to that but if I export as MP3 I get a different icon! I have just spent a good fove minutes trying to find a recording sample to send to son.

Also, after using search in W10 it found the file then asked me if I wanted to download an app to open it! An MP3 file? Anything will open those.

Or! Am I doing this all wrongly?

Dave.

[James Perrett]

Looks like your file associations are broken. Right click on the file you want to play, go to Open With, go down to Choose Another App and then choose the app that you want to use to play that type of file.

[Eddy Deegan]

The media file will have an icon reflecting the default application than opens when you double-click it. It's actually a rather useful feature so the presence of the traffic cone indicates that when you double-click the file it'll open in VLC.

If you want it to open using something else, right click the file, select "Open With" from the context menu, select that and pick/find the application you want to open the file with.

You'll also see a small checkbox saying something like 'do this for all files of this type' during the process which, if you check it, will associate the media type with the application you selected, whereupon the icon of all files of that type should change to reflect that new application.

[Moroccomoose]

^^That, or reset your 'default app' settings. Just click the windows menu button then start typing 'default apps' and it will appear in the search. From there you can alter which programs open which file type by default.

It may be a different way to do the same thing!

Stu

[ef37a]

Cheers chaps, all makes sense. Unfortunately in neither case does the 'app' I want, Samplitude Pro X Silver, come up.

No matter, I have lived with the oddity a long time just now and again it gets to be a nuisance.
I dare say I really need to set to and de-clutter my desktop!

Dave.

[Hugh Robjohns]

Type 'associations' into the Windows search box or go to Control Panel > Default Programs > Set Associations.

You'll then see a list of all the file type extensions the computer knows about (.jpg, .wav, .mp3, .docx... etc) and the program currently associated with each extension.

If you want to change an association, highlight it in the list, then click on Change Program. You'll then see a number of alternative programs for that file type that the computer is already aware of (you may need to expand the 'Other Programs' section!). If the program you want isn't listed, go to Browse and find it manually.

Select the new program and close the window(s). From now onwards, whenever you click on that file type in the file Explorer, the newly selected program will be used to open it.

[wireman]

Ever since an update for VLC it has converted Samplitude files to it own 'traffic cone' icon. I have become used to that but if I export as MP3 I get a different icon! I have just spent a good fove minutes trying to find a recording sample to send to son.
.

This is a common issue with image viewers and video apps since they want to own the windows association for the file types they can work with. VLC probably had a checkbox set allowing it to set the file associations but you might have not noticed it. A similar issue can happen if you uninstall such a program with the result that some associations revert to Windows defaults.