Opening files with default Windows application from within emacs

Question

I\'m trying to tweak the dired-find-file function in emacs on Windows XP so that when I open (say) a pdf file from dired it fires up a copy of Acrobat Reader and op

Answer 1

Use Dired+ for this, along with w32-browser.el

• C-RET opens the current-line's file using its Windows file-association application.

• M-RET opens Windows Explorer to the file or folder

• ^, when in a root directory (e.g. C:\), moves up to a Dired-like list of all Windows drives (local and remote).

The commands for the first two are available from w32-browser.el. (Dired+ binds them to those keys.) The command for the third is from Dired+.