Top all-time · #10117
the kolbicz blog
Personal blog · kolbi.cz/blogprogrammingsystems
the kolbicz blog is a personal blog at kolbi.cz about programming and systems. Since 2018, 8 different Hacker News readers have linked it 11 times, most often “UserChoice Protection Driver – UCPD.sys”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link the kolbi.cz post on SetUserFTA, a 2017 tool for setting Windows file type and default browser associations by working around the UserChoice hash. Commenters cite it as a reference.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-09-12
- UserChoice Protection Driver – UCPD.sys3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-04-07
What Hacker News says?
Yes, there are ways around that now. One example: https://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
on “Microsoft intercepting Firefox, Chrome installation on Windows 10 Insider build”Submitted UserChoice Protection Driver – UCPD.sys as a story · 3 points
HN discussionTo be honest, Mozilla isn't the first one here. SetUserFTA ( https://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-... ) has been around since 2017, and this pastebin ( https://pastebin.com/yVhWeQ3X ) even predates it.
Comment linking /blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
on “Mozilla has defeated Microsoft’s default browser protections in Windows”Submitted UserChoice Protection Driver as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSounds like what SetUserFTA does: https://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
on “Mozilla has defeated Microsoft’s default browser protections in Windows”Submitted UserChoice Protection Driver – UCPD.sys as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWe have been scripting it for years with this utility: https://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
on “Mozilla has defeated Microsoft’s default browser protections in Windows”Submitted Windows 10 – Set the Default Browser per command line or script as a story · 1 points
HN discussion"UserChoice" - what a doublespeak name. It's been there since Win8 or so, and defeated just as long ago: https://danysys.com/set-file-type-association-default-applic... http://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-d... (Note the messages about "fixed false positive from Windows Defender"...)
Comment linking /blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
on “Mozilla has defeated Microsoft’s default browser protections in Windows”I thought the whole point of the hash was it could change arbitrarily with windows updates to stop programs reverse engineering it and then setting file associations or browser choice directly in the registry. Although not sure if it has ever changed before though just by quickly scanning the change log for this app people were using to set it https://kolbi.cz/blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-...
Comment linking /blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
on “Microsoft Broke a Chrome Feature to Promote Its Edge Browser”Windows is slowly getting more walled. For example, it’s not possible anymore to freely define file type associations in the registry. Windows only enables the user to do so via a very limited UI, which for example doesn’t allow custom icons, command lines, or custom groupings or forwarding of associations. Someone reverse-engineered the protection to defeat it [1], but it’s still a pain. Another example is that it’…
Comment linking /blog/2017/10/25/setuserfta-userchoice-hash-defeated-set-file-type-associations-per-user/
on “Wolfram Language and Mathematica Free on Every Raspberry Pi”