How to Stop HTML Files from Opening in Notepad in Windows 7

There are a number of different file types that you can view in Web browsers, and different websites employ different file types based on the way that the website is structured.

One of the more common file types used for Web pages is a .html file. These types of files typically use various tags and code to organize and format the information that you see when you view that page in a compatible program.

ideally a .html file will open in a program that interprets the code in the file and displays the output of that code.

But you may find that you when you open an .html file stored locally on your computer (such as one that might be sent to you as an email attachment in Microsoft Outlook), that it is opening in Notepad, which can make the information on the page difficult to read.

Our guide below will show you how to change a setting in Windows 7 that will cause that file to open in a Web browser instead.

Here is how to change the program that opens .html files in Windows 7 –

  1. Click the Start button at the bottom-left corner of the screen.
  2. Click Default Programs.
  3. Click Associate a file type or protocol with a program.
  4. Click the .html option from the list, then click the Change program button.
  5. Click the program that you want to use to open .html files in the future, then click the OK button.

These steps are also repeated below with pictures –

Step 1: Click the Start button.

click the start button

Step 2: Click Default Programs in the column at the right side of the Start menu.

click default programs

Step 3: Click the blue Associate a file type or protocol with a program link.

associate a file type or protocol with a program

Step 4: Scroll down to the .html option (these file extensions are listed alphabetically), click it once to select it, then click the gray Change program button at the top-right corner of the window.

select the html file type

Step 5: Click the program that you want to use to open .html files in the future (probably a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome), then click the OK button. If the program that you want to use is not listed, then scroll to the bottom of the list and click the arrow to the right of Other programs to see some additional options.

select the program to use to open html files

Now that you know how to stop HTML files from opening i Notepad on your Windows 7 computer, it can be much easier to view or edit them in the future.

Another file type that might be opening in Notepad is a CSV file. Click here and learn how to open .csv files in Excel instead of Notepad.

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