Solved File Association Manager???

If I try to click to open a file with an unknown extension, I typically get a message that says "Download and install the latest version of File Association Manager?"

If I click on the "yes" box, I get sent off to an unknown site that tries to install a program "installer.exe" from an unknown source.

Is there really a problem with my copy of File Association Manager, or is this just one of those links that I really don't want to follow?

I don't see anything on the Microsoft web site download directory about an updated version.

Back on my old Win 7 machine (yeah, I know!), I just got a list of apps to pick from to try to open the file. Now I have to go through two or three windows to choose something like Notepad to see the contents of the file.

Your expertise is needed and appreciated.

Thanks!
Mike Harmon

Window 11 normally behaves pretty much like Windows 7 when you open a file with an unknown extension.

As far as I know, there is no "File Association Manager" in Windows 11. A quick Web search shows at least one utility with that name. If such a utility is present, I'd uninstall it. If some other third-party utility is "helping" you by trying to get you to install File Association Manager, I'd uninstall that.

You may choose to do otherwise, of course.

I agree. There is no such app by that name as part of Windows. In Windows, file associations for different file types are set within settings-apps-default apps by file type-Sounds like you have acquired a piece of malware, or at the very least a very undesirable program. Run Malwarebytes to see if it locates the program. If it does quarantine or uninstall it.

I had a sneaky feeling that that "link" to download the "latest" version of File Association Manager was a hoax -- that's the reason I never followed it all the way to the download process. It just was a little too wonky considering that the download was coming from an unknown source. I was a security admin in my prior life, and I'm pretty paranoid about Mystery Sources.

Mike, WB0LDJ