While Windows 10 is easy to install, configuring to your liking is not a fast process. After you spend all that precious times installing necessary programs and associating file formats with them, you probably want to keep them that way.
Nevertheless, Windows 10 can sometimes reset file associations to their default settings. Which is why it’s a good idea to export file associations in Windows 10, so you can import them later such as after a Windows 10 update or to a new user account.
How to export file associations in Windows 10
If you want to export file associations in Windows 10 you should know this is a painless process and it relies on the stock DISM tool. What it does, is it saves them as an XML file which you can later import also through DISM.
Here’s how it works:
Assuming you have file associations already set up according to your preferences open an elevated command prompt.
You can do that from the Start context (right-click menu) where you simply need to select ‘Command Prompt (Admin)’.
In the console, paste or type the command below then hit Enter on your keyboard:
dism /online /Export-DefaultAppAssociations:”%UserProfile%\Desktop\FileAssociations.xml
This will save your existing file associations in an XML file named FileAssociations on your desktop.
Now that you managed to export file associations in Windows 10, here’s how you can import them.
How to import file associations in Windows 10
Now that you have the XML document with file associations saved on your computer it’s time to learn how to import file associations in Windows 10.
To begin with, you will need to open an elevated Command Prompt just like when exporting file associations.
Then, paste or type the command below then press Enter:
dism /online /Import-DefaultAppAssociations:”%UserProfile%\Desktop\FileAssociations.xml
This will restore the file associations saved in the FileAssociations.xml file. If you moved the file from the desktop or saved it elsewhere you need to edit the path accordingly for the command to work properly.
If for whatever reason you want to revert the changes made by the imported associations file, you can do that by running the following command in the elevated command prompt:
Dism.exe /Online /Remove-DefaultAppAssociations
This will remove the imported file associations and restore the prior configuration.
