Problems with “File Association” in Windows 7

I actually had this trouble trying to associate .tab files with Excel after an upgrade from Office 2007 to Office 2010.

Although I am able to go through the “regular” process to associate a program with an extension it doesn’t work. After going through the browse process and selecting the program it brings me back to the “open with” window. The program I’ve selected does not appear in the “open with” window and it appears that it is simply ignoring me.I’ve also tried the “Default Programs” route but wind up at the same “open with” window that still ignores me.

The fix for me was slightly different than the document:

After playing around a lil I think I’ve figured it out.. [for me at least..]

The program that you’re pointing to isn’t registered correctly.
In regedit: Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications and find your .exe name.
Navigate under its name to shell>open>command. In the Default change its location to the actual location of the executable, hit okay and then try and reassociate the file type as you normally would.
Let me know if that doesn’t seem to work.
Their issue was related to ‘Program Files’ vs ‘Program Files (x86)’.  In my case, the reg key was still pointing to the ‘Office12’ folder.  I pointed it to ‘Office14’ and Excel now shows up in the available files for ‘Open with…’

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