Ftype

Applies To: Windows Vista,Windows Server 2008

Displays or modifies file types that are used in file name extension associations. If used without an assignment operator (=), ftype displays the current open command string for the specified file type. If used without parameters, ftype displays the file types that have open command strings defined.

For examples of how to use this command, see Examples.

Syntax

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ftype [<FileType>[=[<OpenCommandString>]]]

Parameters

Parameter

Description

<FileType>

Specifies the file type to display or change.

<OpenCommandString>

Specifies the open command string to use when opening files of the specified file type.

/?

Displays help at the command prompt.

Remarks

The following table describes how ftype substitutes variables within an open command string:

Variable

Replacement value

%0 or %1

Gets substituted with the file name being launched through the association.

%*

Gets all of the parameters.

%2, %3, ...

Gets the first parameter (%2), the second parameter (%3), and so on.

%~<N>

Gets all of the remaining parameters starting with the Nth parameter, where N can be any number from 2 to 9.

Examples

To display the current file types that have open command strings defined, type:

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ftype

To display the current open command string for the txtfile file type, type:

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ftype txtfile

This command produces output similar to the following:

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txtfile=%SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE %1

To delete the open command string for a file type called Example, type:

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ftype example=

To associate the .pl file name extension with the PerlScript file type and enable the PerlScript file type to run PERL.EXE, type the following commands:

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assoc .pl=PerlScript
ftype PerlScript=perl.exe %1 %*

To eliminate the need to type the .pl file name extension when invoking a Perl script, type:

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set PATHEXT=.pl;%PATHEXT%

Additional references

Command-Line Syntax Key