Thanks for your response, Frededrick. You're correct that I didn't mention the Windows O/S these PCs have loaded -- it is XP Home Edition, with SP2 and all the latest Microsoft patches installed. I will try your suggestion as a possible work-around although it doesn't address the issue I tried (perhaps incompletely) to describe. It may turn out that this method also may be disabled - that the CHANGE button under Properties | General may also be grayed out. My goal still is to determine how to reinstate the CHANGE function under Folder Options | File Types in Windows Explorer, as this is the function I should be able to demonstrate to PC students. One problem source I had considered, Policy Editor restrictions, appears not to apply for an XP Home Edition O/S - setting Local Policy restrictions isn't supported on Home Edition. I'll just keep searching for clues. Again, thanks. Do you want to signoff PCSOFT or just change to Digest mode - visit our web site: http://freepctech.com/pcsoft.shtml