How to make the Windows XP explorer window open files in a webdav folder on double-click

When I open a local file folder in Windows XP explorer, I can right-click on any file and see a context-dependent set of actions that can be performed on that file (Open, Edit, Print, etc.) The one highlighted at the top is what is executed when I double-click. However, when I browse a web folder, most of these actions are missing, and what is more, the "Folder Options" panel (under tools) is missing the "File Types" tab where I am used to configuring this sort of thing. What gives?!?

Background

Doing a google search revealed a related problem encountered by users who have upgraded to Vista. Apparently the Vista developers decided to remove the "File Types" tab from the "Folder Options" panel of Windows Explorer. I guess a lot of that functionality, but not all, has been provided in a new control panel widget called Default File Types or something like that. Regardless, it has a lot of new Vista users up in arms and looking for ways to get back the power to directly manipulate the context menu for particular file types. Reading through this discussion eventually landed me on a path to discovering where my action items had gone in Windows XP.

Explanation

The answer is that explorer treats the files in a web folder differently from local files. A web folder is a directory on a web server that supports the webdav protocol. One opens a web folder in Windows XP by using Network Places/Add a Network Place and giving a URL in the place where one would usually type the \\servername\folder\path to a windows share. Windows XP explorer displays file and folders in a web folder using icons that correspond to the filename extention, the same way as they would be displayed in a local folder. However the context menu shows a reduced set of actions and double clicking produces a different result, most often nothing!

The reason for this