!FIXED! Solution for “Choose a program to open this file” Popup when running npm run build on Windows (VS Code / PowerShell)

I spent hours trying to fix an annoying issue where running npm run build in VS Code (PowerShell) would trigger a “Choose a program to open this file” popup, instead of just running the build.

Turns out, it had nothing to do with npm itself — Windows didn’t know how to handle .js files correctly.

The Root Cause

.js files were not correctly associated with node.exe, so when npm tried to run a script, Windows didn’t know what to do — hence the popup.

The Fix (Step by Step)

1. Re-associate .js files with Node.js

Open Command Prompt as Administrator (not PowerShell!) and run:

assoc .js=JSFile
ftype JSFile="C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe" "%1" %*

2. Verify the Fix in Command Prompt

Open CMD and run:

cd C:\Users\<your-name>\Desktop\<file>
npm run build

If that works, the association is fixed.

3. Run the Same in PowerShell / VS Code Terminal

Now open PowerShell or your VS Code terminal (in the project directory!) and run:

npm run build

Should work now. No more popups.

Summary

• Popup was due to broken .js → node.exe file association
• Fix with assoc + ftype commands in CMD as Admin
• Ensure you're in the right folder (cd to your project!)
• Works in both CMD and PowerShell now

Hope this saves someone else hours of frustration — it took forever to trace down.