Coffee - portable file associations

[Lupo73]

Some weeks ago I have collaborated with eXpresso developer to improve and fix it, given that Coffee was not fully accepted by users.
It isn't a problem, because users now can choose to keep Coffee, to migrate to a stable eXpresso version I have released or to try the last unstable eXpresso version.

[computerfreaker]

users now can choose to keep Coffee, to migrate to a stable eXpresso version I have released or to try the last unstable eXpresso version.

Or they can try the last stable, full-featured CAFE at the Dropbox link I gave. I've been using it for probably 3 months; it's never crashed, and the featureset is good.

[Midas]

Old topic update: having tried to make sense of the scattered information on CAFE / Coffee and several other kin, due to the infinite recursion of online resources and the fact that this doesn't seem to attract a lot of attention anymore, I quickly gave up.

For the benefit of anyone still interested, here's a list of links instead.

Programs:

• Coffee

https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1317
http://www.lupopensuite.com/db/coffee.htm

• CAFE (aka "C.A.F.E.")

http://clef.usb.googlepages.com/cafe (DEAD!)
(Note: v1.6.8 still available from French site framakey.org/telecharger/applications-portables-libres#preferences)

• eXpresso

http://www.lupopensuite.com/db/expresso.htm
https://portableapps.com/node/27101
See also:
eXpresso (CAFE Mod)
https://portableapps.com/node/13787
[Outdated] CAFE Mod Beta 5b Development Test 1 (to be renamed eXpresso)
https://portableapps.com/node/13453
eXpresso 1.5 Alpha 2
https://portableapps.com/node/22677
eXpresso and PortableFileAssociator
viewtopic.php?t=15014

• Assox

https://sites.google.com/site/assoxhome/Home

• PortableFileAssociator

https://portableapps.com/node/15583

• Gunners File Type Editor

https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1912


Related info:

"CAFE / Coffee custom configs" -- viewtopic.php?t=4915

"CAFE is now Coffee" -- viewtopic.php?t=6783

CAFE Config -- https://sites.google.com/site/cafeconfig/

OpenWith.org -- https://www.openwith.org/download


Related "legacy" programs:

• FileAsoc

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/rhaminisys/fileasoc.html

• WAssociate

https://wstudios.home.xs4all.nl/Associate/

• XpAssociate

http://www.memecode.com/xpassociate.php

• Portable Extension Manager (PEM)

http://freewarewire.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... magic.html

• Mad-Monkey's ascBackup (discontinued)

http://www.mad-monkey.co.uk/cgi-bin/def ... 00,infoasc

• Lococobra's File Extension Reassigner

viewtopic.php?t=2352



With substantial info skimmed from a German freeware forum; see www.essential-freebies.de/board/viewtopic.php?t=15059.

[webfork]

For the benefit of anyone still interested, here's a list of links instead.

Thanks for assembling all that. A huge amount of my time and energy went into working with this program and similar tools when I first came on the site. It was a pretty amazing thing to be able to open/edit 100s of file types just by double-clicking them.

In some ways I guess this topic is more relevant than ever: Windows file association issues that were annoying in WinXP improved in Win7 and then got worse again with Win10. I've had numerous issues with either associations being replaced or constantly prompted. Also, there's a fairly standard portable toolset now, meaning we don't have the same issues when the site was young where major freeware offers were being added to the database that might disrupt a standardized list. So for example, my preferred graphics viewer program was FastStone Viewer, but XnView had a much larger file association list. Which one do you pick?

If any devs want to take a crack at building a program that might address these issues, please drop me a line or reply in the thread. I've got some ideas.

[lintalist]

So for example, my preferred graphics viewer program was FastStone Viewer, but XnView had a much larger file association list. Which one do you pick?

I haven't used Coffee or any of the variations for the simple reason I'll let my filemanager handle it - with a bit of help. I prefer dual-pane file managers and use Total Commander, but there are many similar programs that are freeware incl. many listed here on TPFC of course.

TC has:

• internal file associations, that means you can open programs using the file manager that are different from the program Windows has assigned them to
• tools that offer you a menu to select a program for specific/defined extensions. So for example you can assign PDF to multiple programs, and then choose which program to use to open them [1]

Many other file managers will have similar settings and tools.

[1] For Total Commander there are various programs:
- F4MiniMenu - https://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=35721 (portable, developed in AutoHotkey, can use compiled version)
- F4Menu - http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=17003 (portable)
- Total Commander Edit Redirector - http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=27573 (portable, no menu though)
(with portable I mean they should support relative paths or internal TC path so you can call program relative to TC which in itself is a portable application)

older, quite possible not useful for 64-bit, not sure if they are "portable"
- ChoiceEditor - http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/ChoiceEditor.html
- Open File shell for TC - http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/OpenFileTC.html