3 October, 2009 | 0 Comments

Open With in Microsoft Windows R.I.P

The early days, a much simpler time

I was always a hardcore windows user, I started with DOS, which is why I probably like linux, the console makes me very reminiscent of those days. But as I progressed through the versions of Microsoft Products – DOS versions to Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista, & lately, Windows 7 – one feature above all others stood out…

Open With

Windows has always been the core of any computer, with only its rival, Apple’s OS X with a much smaller market share. But one feature which made my life easier certainly from windows XP (I didn’t use ME or 2000 for very long), was the ability to open several files of the same type / association, at the same time, with a particular program, hence the right click menu of ‘Open With’.

As a programmer, a business owner, a visionary for the future, ‘Open With’ really brought about change for me, a lifetime of pointless opening of one file at a time via the program itself, or in later versions of windows, dragging them and dropping them all in – were finally over.

Now in Microsoft Windows XP, I was able to select PHP files (multiple files) HTML files, CSS files, ASP files (year right *spit*), all together, right click, and open them with my program of choice (Dreamweaver). I was humble at this point, my life was feeling complete. But then..

A Wind of Change was Upon Us, The End of a Era

I started to move on from my beloved Windows XP, and start to use Vista, for a time everything was peaceful, the new interface distracted me from a more sinister truth. One day, I tried to start to use my beloved ‘Open With’ right click menu command that I had grown so fondly of… But it was gone. I panicked, I started looking everywhere, where had it gone? Was it something I had done? Had I over used it in Windows XP that Vista had see it coming and needed to punish me like some divine lord above… I started to calm down, only to find that the Open With command had been banished from the operating system lords. Microsoft.

I also started to find that Vista was crap for development yadda yadda yadda, blah blah, etc (not relevant for this).

A NEW Era of Computing, a Land of Hope

This was my final straw, I send Microsoft a stern email, and left them – for what I thought would be forever. I went over to what previously had been declared the dark side of computing. Apple Computers. I started to use my Apple, learn its ways, its tricks of the trade, and to my surprise, Apple had seen me coming, it seems almost as if it was just for me. THEY HAVE THE OPEN WITH COMMAND!!!

A Couple of Years Past, the Dust was Settling after Vista

Windows 7 came out, promising better performance, better control, less Mumsyness, and a overall a message of change. Of course I jumped at the chance to try it, I thought my old friend ‘Open With’ might be back, greeting me with open arms.

…It wasn’t to be, Windows 7 did not have open with, but it was better overall. But why would Microsoft get rid of probably the MOST useful feature of their operating system for developers & designers?

Why ‘Open With’ Has Gone

Apparently, this is what I have heard. The new file structure that Windows had developed, does not support ‘Open With’, and so they cannot use it.

Personally I think that is a rubbish excuse, and simply laziness, after all only a certain type of user (like the web design industry, and others) would use this feature – and come future Windows Versions, ‘Open With’ will be a distant memory of a better, simpler age of computing.