So in other word you find it annoying to select the all files from the combo box everytime you have to open a file that is not a .txt file... OK I guess there is some practical reasoning you have behind this becuase I just don't user notepad "that often" that I would find it annoying, but hey we each have our preferences right. Anyway, I do not think it is possible unless made you remove the file associate for notepad to .txt extension (That might work) but then whenever you have a .txt file it will not open automatically in notepad. The reason I don't think it will work is becuase of the basic file associations for the application. txt is the default character set that is used hence it is what it looks for. If you remove the file associate it might default to *.* Just my 0.02 worth...again...