Open text files using Chrome text app

Did you know you can set the Chrome app named “text” as the default application for opening any document/file on your system?

Today I figured I’d see if I could make the Chrome text app be my default program for opening .txt files on my system and I found that on my Windows system I could.

I did the following to make it work:

  1. First I created a shortcut on my desktop to the app.
    1. Open the apps tab or open the Chrome app launcher.
    2. Right-click on the text icon and select the “Create Shortcut” option
    3. I created the shortcut on my desktop for easy access.
  2. Right-click on the shortcut and go to properties to find what the “Target” path is.
  3. Copy the “Target” path.
  4. Now you can do one of two things you can edit the registry or you can use a program like Types to change the default program for any file, I personally like to use Types because it’s easy.

Using Types

  1. After you have Types installed right click on a .txt (or other document) and select “Edit with type”.
  2. Go to the “Actions” tab and click on the “open” action.
  3. Past the “text” target path into the bottom field and add a space and then “%1” to the end of the string.
  4. Close Types and try and open a file of the type you changed change and it should open with the Chrome app text.

Types Screenshot

Using the Registry

  1. Open regedit
  2. To change .txt files go to “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile\shell\open\command”
  3. Edit the “(Default)” string value to be the target path to the Chrome text app and add a “%1%” to the end of the string. It should look something like this:

Regedit view