Choose Program is a more flexible alternative to the Open With submenu included on the context menu in Windows XP (and the Open With item available in other Windows versions). Although XP's approach is better than in other versions, the alternative programs listed are not always relevant to the type of file you're trying to open, and the list has an irritating habit of changing.

Choose Program lets you define a list of programs you want to use for files with particular extensions. To open a file in one of these programs, just right click it, select Choose Program from the ShellToys XP menu and double-click the program you want to use. You can also create a list of programs with which to open folders by right-clicking a folder or the window background in the same way. Choose Program remembers which program you last used for a particular file type, and pre-selects the same program on next use, allowing you to simply press Enter if you want to use the same program again.

Adding Programs
When you right-click a file with a .txt extension (for example) and select Choose Program, the Choose Program dialog will list the programs you've selected for .txt files. The first time you select this tool for a particular file-extension the list will be empty. To add programs to the list, click the Add/Remove button and pick an option from the menu:

• Add Existing Program displays a list of all the programs added for all types of file. If you've already defined a particular program to use for another file type, it's quicker to pick it from this list than to browse your hard drive for its .exe file.

• Add New Program displays a standard file dialog, letting you browse your hard disk to select the .exe (or .com/.bat) file for the program you want to add.

• Copy List From Extension displays a list of all the file extensions for which you've defined a list of programs. For example, if you've set up a list of programs to have available for opening .jpg files, and you're now creating a list for .gif files, select the JPG Files item from the dialog and the same list of programs will be added to the .gif list.

To delete an item from the current list, select it and press the Delete key or choose Remove Program from the Add/Remove menu. (This doesn't uninstall the program or delete any files, and it doesn't remove the program from the lists for other file types.)

When you add or remove a program, the list is saved immediately. If you just wanted to edit the list without opening the file you right-clicked, choose Cancel to close this window when you're done.

Notes:

1. Programs you add must have been written to accept files (or folders) passed as parameters. Most programs that can open files do support this, but you may come across one or two older programs that don't. In those cases, the program should still run, but it won't open the selected file.

2. Although you can create a 'Choose Program' list for folders, there are few programs that accept folders as parameters. Examples are image browsers (such as our own HotShot utility) and file managers. As above, if a program doesn't support folders as parameters, it should still open without any problems.

3. ShellToys verifies and manages the program lists automatically, removing programs from the list if they have been uninstalled.