Windows 10 keeps looping "How do you want to open this file?" dialog

1. I double click an xml file.
2. Windows 10 asks me "How do you want to open this file?"
3. I make a selection and click ok
4. I'm back at 2 (rince and repeat, forever...)

If I click the "always use" checkbox, I even see the icons refresh in the windows explorer, before the "How do you want to open this file?" dialog pops back in screen.

I already tried deleting all the xml keys in the registry that I could find (no worries, I exported them first).

I tried different programs in the dialog. Nothing works.

I created a dummy file extension, and that worked fine... the dialog appeared once, and after that it opened in the app I picked.

But it looks like somehow the file open dialog is stuck on .xml files.

Does anyone have any clue at all?