-Edit- I feel like an idiot. I had a feeling something like the answer below would work but didnt see any google results similar to the answers below. So when i saw this complex code i thought it had to be this way.
I searched and found this Windows: List and Launch applications associated with an extension however it didnt answer my question. With tweaks below i came up with the below. However it gets stuck on image files. Txt files run fine
I will update this code soon to account for app paths with spaces however i dont understand why image files dont launch.
static void launchFile(string fn)
{
//majority was taken from
//https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24954/windows-list-and-launch-applications-associated-with-an-extension
const string extPathTemplate = @"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\{0}";
const string cmdPathTemplate = @"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\{0}\shell\open\command";
string ext = Path.GetExtension(fn);
var extPath = string.Format(extPathTemplate, ext);
var docName = Registry.GetValue(extPath, string.Empty, string.Empty) as string;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(docName))
{
// 2. Find out which command is associated with our extension
var associatedCmdPath = string.Format(cmdPathTemplate, docName);
var associatedCmd = Registry.GetValue(associatedCmdPath, string.Empty, string.Empty) as string;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(associatedCmd))
{
//Console.WriteLine("\"{0}\" command is associated with {1} extension", associatedCmd, ext);
var p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.FileName = associatedCmd.Split(' ')[0];
string s2 = associatedCmd.Substring(p.StartInfo.FileName.Length + 1);
s2 = s2.Replace("%1", string.Format("\"{0}\"", fn));
p.StartInfo.Arguments = s2;//string.Format("\"{0}\"", fn);
p.Start();
}
}
}