Changing the program associated with .jar files on Windows Vista

Windows Vista Explorer, like XP before it, natively supports browsing .zip files, although for some reason known only to Microsoft, the' re called 'compressed folders'. There is a built-in or hard-coded file association between .zip files and a nonexistent program named 'CompressedFolders', and as a result this program does not appear in the list of Default Programs so you can configure addional associations. Why they made this a special case I don't know, but it makes it less than obvious when trying to associate the decompression and browsing functionality of Windows Explorer with .jar files.

The fix? Open a command window as administrator and run:

cmd /c assoc .jar=CompressedFolder

now all jar files can be exploded and browsed with Windows Explorer on the desktop.