"Associate with...": a Windows bad joke!

[Clo]

Hello!

¤ Using the TC function "Associate with..." is easy to choose a program which'll open a certain (new) type of file.
That works fine in TC...
Unfortunately, Win 98 (and Win 95 previously...) has the bad habit to remove/lose the double-quotes of .... "%1" in this file-type definition! It's quite random; that can work normally either for one day, one week or more, or bothers you three times a day, needing to write these awful quotes again!
¤ It's very irritating, since when the quotes are missing, the files having a path/name containing spaces can't be found!
Hence, you could get n... error messages, one per space; i.e., if you need to open a file like: C:\My Folder\My dog
the messages are something like:

"Can't find file Folder"
"Can't find file dog"

¤ Sometimes, you have none error message, but your program-window is empty - for instance to open a text file into it's associated editor-.
= = = write the quotes again!

Does somebody know a cure for this disease?
Welcome to tricks and tips! Thanks!
Friendly,
Clo

[white]

Has it anything to do with that TC saves the association in both reg.dat and win.ini (as stated in TC Help)?

1) Add a new or change an existing file(association) type in TC
2) Wait a while, then check C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI section "[Extensions]". It has an faulty entry containing a double quote where it should not be.
3) In windows (not TC!) remove the file type
4) Now the association does not work anymore in windows, but TC still uses the entry in WIN.INI which can give bad results because of the double quote in WIN.INI. Remove the double quote from WIN.INI and the association will work fine in TC.

Why is the association still saved in WIN.INI for the 32 bit version of TC?

BTW. WINFILE.EXE also stores the association in both registry and WIN.INI. But the association does not work in WINFILE.EXE if the association is only saved in the WIN.INI and not in the registry.
I use Windows 98.

[Clo]

Has it anything to do with that TC saves the association in both reg.dat and win.ini (as stated in TC Help)?

1) Add a new or change an existing file(association) type in TC
2) Wait a while, then check C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI section "[Extensions]". It has an faulty entry containing a double quote where it should not be.
3) In windows (not TC!) remove the file type
4) Now the association does not work anymore in windows, but TC still uses the entry in WIN.INI which can give bad results because of the double quote in WIN.INI. Remove the double quote from WIN.INI and the association will work fine in TC.

Why is the association still saved in WIN.INI for the 32 bit version of TC?

BTW. WINFILE.EXE also stores the association in both registry and WIN.INI. But the association does not work in WINFILE.EXE if the association is only saved in the WIN.INI and not in the registry.
I use Windows 98.

Thank you for these infos, I'll check that soon...
The most strange fact is that sometimes the change / new type set / in TC works OK for a long while (like I told)... The lost quotes are often for the same file-types, especially for the *.TXT format! I noticed that Windows doesn't care of paths / names with spaces at the original installation for that file-type, since the quotes for "%1" are originally missing, even in XP-Pro!
MS loves its old bugs!
¤ Besides, it's often very laborious to change that associated program in XP from TC! I had to remove the type in Windows (i.e.: *.GIF), because the change in TC was quite inefficient!
I had white file-icons, and "Associated with: <none>" in TC, but yet a double-click on a *.GIF launched still this ugly Win pic-viewer....
I think that Christian G. might improve this function, for these odd cases...
Friendly regards,
Claude

EDIT: continuation...
Hello!

Has it anything to do with that TC saves the association in both reg.dat and win.ini (as stated in TC Help)?

¤ I just checked the <win.ini> file; about *.txt file-type, I found:
txt=C:\Xed\xED.exe ^.txt
xED is the editor I associated with *.txt
8)Currently, it works normally when there are spaces in the path or /and the file-name…

¤ in the Register, I found:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt]
@="txt_auto_file"

and too:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txt_auto_file\shell\open\command]
@="C:\\Xed\\xED.exe "%1""

¤ I deleted a key for another TXT association with a program which no longer exists in the PC!

¤ Whether I well understood, there are normal values?
Ididn't make yet the full test that you describe… I'm so busy actually, I'm preparing something for an easy messages writing here.
I wait for the next "quotes escapade" to apply this trick!
Best regards,
Friendly,
Claude
Clo

[white]

When I use TC to associate ".zzz" with textpad I get (after a delay) the following entry in my WIN.INI file:

Code: Select all

zzz=C:\OS\TOOLS\TEXTPA~1\TEXTPAD.EXE " ^.zzz

When I now use TC to change the description of the file type from "zzz file" to "zzz filE" the entry in my WIN.INI file changes (after a delay) into:

Code: Select all

zzz=C:\OS\TOOLS\TEXTPA~1\TEXTPAD.EXE  ^.zzz

When I use windows to remove the file type "zzz file", the entry in the WIN.INI remains. Then when I use TC to open the file "T:\test 1 2 3\test 4 5 6.zzz", it will open correctly if entry in WIN.INI is correct. But if the entry in WIN.INI contains the double quote TextPad will show the error:

Code: Select all

OK to create
'C:\OS\Tools\TextPad 4\ T:\test 1 2 3\test 4 5 6.zzz'

EDITED:
This bug was fixed in a later release of Total Commander.