How do I change associated helper apps in Opera?

hucker

hucker

If I click on a magnet link on a webpage in Opera, it's opening Shareaza which I recently installed, instead of utorrent like I want it to. I have tried reinstalling utorrent but that didn't help. Where in Opera settings do I tell it which program to launch?

leocg

leocg Moderator Volunteer @hucker

@hucker Opera uses the default application set up in the OS settings to handle that protocol.

hucker

hucker @leocg

@leocg Ah, then this is a Windows question, any idea why this list is so restricted? alt text

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer

On the "Configurations" page in the uTorrent installer, there's a "File Types" section with a checkbox for "Magnet URIs" that you can check.

It adds the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet key and its subkeys to the registry specifying the command to launch magnet links. The command is:

"C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\uTorrent\uTorrent.exe" "%1" /SHELLASSOC

If you want to do it manually, you can save the following as mag.reg in Notepad, edit all instances of "yourusername" to the name of your username folder in "C:\Users", save, right-click on the reg file, and choose "merge".

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet]
@="Magnet URI"
"URL Protocol"=""
"Content Type"="application/x-magnet"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Users\\yourusername\\AppData\\Roaming\\uTorrent\\maindoc.ico"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet\shell]
@="open"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet\shell\open]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Users\\yourusername\\AppData\\Roaming\\uTorrent\\uTorrent.exe\" \"%1\" /SHELLASSOC"

But, you shouldn't need to do that though as the installer will do it. Or, on the "General" tab in uTorrent's settings, click "Associate with torrent files" and it'll add the magnet key in for you.

Then, Opera and Chrome etc. will pass magnet links on to uTorrent.

You'll just have to make sure your other torrent programs aren't set to steal the associate back.

hucker

hucker @burnout426

@burnout426
Those entries were already in my registry, but I re-merged it anyway, after changing the username with search and replace. Still Opera opens magnet link with Shareaza. I had not opened Shareaza between doing the merge and clicking a magnet link, so I don't see how it could have stolen it. Anyway it's not mentioned in that part of the registry. Something somewhere else is redirecting.

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @hucker

@hucker What's in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Magnet in the registry?

Is there a Shareaza extension installed in Opera?

hucker

hucker @burnout426

@burnout426 No Shareaza extension in Opera.

Registry reads the following, I think you've found the problem.! I could probably tweak it myself but it looks a little complex. If you could tell me what to insert that would be great.:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet]
@="URL:Magnet Protocol"
"URL Protocol"=""
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002
"AppUserModelID"="Shareaza"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet\DefaultIcon]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Shareaza\\Shareaza.exe\",-128"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet\shell]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet\shell\open]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Shareaza\\Shareaza.exe\" \"%L\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet\shell\open\ddeexec]
@="%1"
"WindowClassName"="ShareazaMainWnd"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet\shell\open\ddeexec\Application]
@="Shareaza"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet\shell\open\ddeexec\IfExec]
@="*"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic]
@="URL"

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @hucker

@hucker I would right-click that magnet key and rename it to magnetoff to see if that lets the one in HKEY_CURRENT_USER do its job.

If that's not enough, right-click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet, export it to a reg file, open the reg file in Notepad, replace all instances of HKEY_CURRENT_USER with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, save your changes, right-click the reg file, and merge it. Then look at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\magnet in the registry again to see if it's better.

You could also remove the "Shareaza" string from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\RegisteredApplications and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\RegisteredApplications if it's there. Or, instead of removing the string, right-click it, choose "rename" and add a ; in front of its name.

hucker

hucker @burnout426

@burnout426 Did all that, but after clicking a magnet link, Shareaza still opened, and the registry somehow got changed back. In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet\shell\open\command I now have "C:\Program Files\Shareaza\Shareaza.exe" "%L" again. Looks like something is running in the background and intercepting things. What a horridly designed program! I got it for edonkey connections, not torrrents!

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @hucker

@hucker In Shareaza's settings under "Web", uncheck everything but edonkey. Then, close Sharaza. Then, delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Magnet and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Magnet. Then, use the associate option in uTorrent and or the reg file mods mentioned earlier.

Hopefully with the magnet option unchecked in Shareaza's settings, it won't try to regrab the association. Tested on Win7 x64 in a virtual machine and that did the trick for me. As in, Shareaza stopped trying to mess with the magnet link association.

hucker

hucker @burnout426

@burnout426 Thanks for all your help, that worked! Not sure how Shareaza was messing around when it wasn't running. Nowadays computers are so untidy we can't see what's going on anymore.

burnout426

burnout426 Volunteer @hucker

@hucker Awesome!