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Solved: Refuses to accept selected program to "Open With"

3K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  jesta77 
#1 ·
Apologies if this problem is already solved elsewhere, it seems kind of simple but I searched and couldn't find it...

I'm having trouble assigning the default program to open certain files on my 64-bit 7 Home Premium machine. I previously had a program called Vesta which I used, and that was fine. The path was something like C:\Program Files (x86)\VESTA\vesta.exe
Then when I discovered there was a 64-bit version of Vesta available, I removed my old version and replaced it with the 64-bit version, now sitting in C:\Program Files\VESTA\vesta.exe

Now I'm trying to reset my .cif files to open with the new Vesta. Not surprisingly, vesta.exe has disappeared from the list of available programs to "Open With", because it no longer exists at the original path. But when I browse to the new vesta.exe in Program Files and select it, nothing happens - it just completely ignores my selection, with no message. I can Browse and select any other .exe program as normal, but there is no way I can assign Vesta as the default program. So, it must have something to do with the fact that the new vesta.exe has the same name as the old one, but a different path.

It seems like I somehow need to reset a hidden "Open With" app path list that Windows is keeping somewhere. Does anyone know how I could get at such a list - is it in the registry maybe? (At the same time it would be nice to remove all the random .exe's I added to the list while I was experimenting...:))

Thanks in advance.
 
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#5 ·
Thanks, but again, it's the same thing - just same dialog box with the same problem.

I've now found a few threads on other forums where people have reported similar problems for isolated programs - unfortunately none of them seem to find a solution...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...ssociate-program-specific-file-extension.html
http://forums.ngemu.com/no-gba-discussion/129919-unable-set-no-gba-default-program.html
http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=87262

I still have a hunch it has something to do with trying to use a modified .exe with the same name as a previously used one. Does this ring any bells with anyone? Some historical list of programs I can edit...?
 
#6 ·
All right, an update: I've proven my suspicions were correct by renaming the new vesta.exe to vesta64.exe - and now it works as normal. I can add it to the list of programs to Open With. (Don't know why I didn't think of trying this before!)
Although it's not strictly a solution, only a workaround - so I'll leave the thread Unsolved for a few days more just to see if anybody else knows anything more about this apparent bug in 7.
 
#7 ·
I'll leave the thread Unsolved for a few days more just to see if anybody else knows anything more about this apparent bug in 7.
So nobody does. :(

Seems like the only way round this is to rename new exe's to something that hasn't been used before, to make them show up in the list. I guess that may break some apps but hey, what would Windows be without its little hiccups...
 
#8 ·
First rename the 64.exe back to what it should be.
click once any .cif file to turn blue
Hold down shift and right click the cif file.
You will see an Open with... in the list
Use Browse lower right and go to folder with Vesta.exe in new location, select and click open
Check the little box lower left [_] Always use
click OK

Edit: apparently the uninstaller didn't work correctly which you see a lot of
 
#9 ·
Unfortunately that does the same thing again.
I think we've now covered all the possible ways for me to get to that same dialog box.... ;)

You're right about the uninstaller though - Vesta doesn't even have one. It's a little piece of freeware that you unzip into a folder and paste into Program Files. All I did to remove the x86 version was delete the folder.

However, that put me in mind to do a registry search for references to 'vesta' and 'cif'... and here's what I found. (No doubt plenty of this kind of junk gets left behind for every little portable freeware app that ever gets executed on my machine... now there's an ugly thought)

Code:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.cif
(Default)    cif_auto_file

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VESTA.exe\shell\open\command
(Default)     "C:\Program Files (x86)\VESTA\VESTA.exe" "%1"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VESTA64.exe\shell\open\command
(Default)     "C:\Program Files\VESTA-win64\VESTA64.exe" "%1"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cif_auto_file\shell\open\command
(Default)     "C:\Program Files (x86)\VESTA\VESTA.exe" "%1"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VESTA.exe\shell\open\command 
(Default)     "C:\Program Files (x86)\VESTA\VESTA.exe" "%1"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VESTA64.exe\shell\open\command
(Default)     "C:\Program Files\VESTA-win64\VESTA64.exe" "%1"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cif_auto_file\shell\open\command
(Default)     "C:\Program Files (x86)\VESTA\VESTA.exe" "%1"

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache
...
C:\Program Files (x86)\VESTA\VESTA.exe    VESTA
C:\Program Files\VESTA-win64\VESTA.exe    VESTA
C:\Program Files\VESTA-win64\VESTA64.exe    VESTA64
...

All these are duplicated exactly with HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT replaced by HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1471404748-717553540-457920778-1001_Classes\Software\Classes\

They are also duplicated exactly with HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT replaced by HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes , along with an additional 3:

Code:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.cif\OpenWithList
(Default)    (Value not set)
a        VESTA.exe
b        AcroRd32.exe
c        NOTEPAD.EXE
d        VESTA64.exe
MRUList    dcab

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.cif\OpenWithProgids
cif_auto_file        (zero-length binary value)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.cif\UserChoice
(Default)    (Value not set)
Progid        Applications\VESTA64.exe
AND, all of the HKEY_CURRENT_USER entries are duplicated in HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1471404748-717553540-457920778-1001\

Now, I'm an experienced Windows user and I've done some casual programming but I'm no registry expert. By reading all of those entries I think I've got a pretty good idea of what's happening - but before I dive into experimentally tweaking my brand new laptop, can anybody tell me exactly what all these mean?
 
#11 ·
You done good searching the registry :up:
Me I am a registry tweaker so I would delete all of them so the new writes back because possibly in a new location
or
go into registry and change everywhere
(Default) "C:\Program Files (x86)\VESTA\VESTA.exe"
to new location
 
#12 ·
Today I had the same problem, which is how I came across your post. Problem was for the program TeXnicCenter. Thanks for the idea, I also fixed the problem by arbitrarily changing the name of the executable file. However I never reinstalled the program, as you did with the 64-bit version. This problem arose the first time around.

I didn't follow what you were saying about this being a registry problem (I'm not at all competent with the registry). Could this simply be a Windows 7 Home Premium bug?
 
#13 ·
his VESTA has no uninstaller so nothing to clean registry when he went to 64 bit

you can create a small .reg to delete these like this, this is not full
notice the - in front of them
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.cif]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VESTA.exe]
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VESTA64.exe]
You can do that manual and there is also 2 sides of the registry in a 64 bit
 
#14 ·
OK guys, sorry it's been a while. What I eventually did was delete every registry reference to VESTA64.exe (which I've now renamed back to VESTA.exe), and then I changed every instance of "C:\Program Files (x86)\VESTA\VESTA.exe" to "C:\Program Files\VESTA-win64\VESTA.exe" except where that would create a duplicate. (I also had to do some subtle stuff like changing HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.cif\OpenWithList\MRUList to "cab" once VESTA64 was gone)

And, it works! :D

My hunch is that the problem lies with the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\VESTA.exe ... there can only be one key with that name, and I guess that doesn't allow for multiple versions of VESTA.exe with different paths. (I have no idea how previous versions of Windows got around this!)

rhearty: is it possible you first had TeXnicCenter.exe in a different folder than where you have it now? Because I guess that would cause the same problem.

This registry thing seems to be an unnecessarily clumsy workaround - it would be really nice not to have to comb through my registry by hand every time I move an exe! (not to mention hazardous for inexperienced registry users!) But, there's no other solution to this issue that I can find anywhere. So yeah - I guess it's a bug. I just hope this thread is useful to others having the same problem, and might even elicit a bugfix one day...?? (I know, I know :rolleyes:)
 
#15 ·
It's the Vesta with no uninstaller so it don't delete old reg keys, that's all it is. I been to this game several time's but I am a registry freak. Even created my own registry program way back cause of things like this. It has a search via vbs and is really quite helpfull.

Since you seem to know your way about the reg you might like it.
http://www.mediafire.com/?0b8epq67f6y01tl NEW Mar 21 2011 - Version 2.9.0 - 98, ME, NT, 2K, XP, VISTA, Seven + 64 aware.
 
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