Article - Technical Tip

Resetting the way windows links to a program when a camera is connected

Have you come across the problem, you connect a camera or other USB device to the computer (PC) and it automatically starts a program, but not the one you want. Perhaps you have Picture Project on your computer and one of the times when it connected and you were offered a choice, you clicked the box to say always use this program when this device is detected, and now you have loaded ViewNX and Nikon Transfer, but of course it ignores these and still starts Picture Project.

So how do we change this, its appears nearly impossible to find.

The solution we have found is to put on the camera, and allow it to connect up, and then to go Start>control panel>cameras and scanners, and select the camera, then right click and choose properties, and you will see that you now have the chance to change your settings and either make it ask you, or to set another default. This will only work if the camera is connected and turned on. Once you have turned the camera off and disconnected it, reconnecting it should now do what you have set up. If not restart the computer.

On person has told us of an additional problem, in that when they plug in the camera, part of Photoshop Elements also starts up, we suspect this is either also within the properties, or there is a small TSR, a program that runs in the background set up when you start the computer that is watching out for situations to occur. As we haven’t seen it, we are unable to say which this is. If you have and know how to fix this then let us know.