TC doesn't remember file associations for images (IrfanView)

[Wojtek]

Hello everyone,

I can't figure out how to make Total Commander open images with the default app.
Every time I try to open an image I get a pop-up window asking "How do you want to open this file?"

Everything seems to be set up properly:

• Default apps: Photo viewer = IrfanView 32-bit

• Set defaults by app: .bmp,.jpg,.jpeg,.png,.tif,... = IrfanView 32-bit

• Choose default apps by file type: all image types set to IrfanView 32-bit

and opening from Explorer or Desktop works fine.

Highly appreciate any help, since I open image files frequently.

[petermad]

Try this:
Right click on an image file.
Choose "Open With"
Choose "Choose another app"
Select IrfanView - if it is not on the list - use the "More apps" to browse for Irfanview
Check the box "Always use this app to open .xxx files" IMPORTANT

Otherwise just use F3 to view the files in TC's Lister - it can show a lot of formats, and can use IrfanView and plugins to show formats, not internally supported.

You can also use TC's Internal associations - and bypass Window's crappy association scheme.

[Wojtek]

Hello petermad,

I already tried this (right-click, open with, etc.), but no change.

Finally I decided to "reset" everything. So here's what I've done:

• Reset the default apps and changed everything back to my needs

• Reinstalled all affected apps (Total Commander, IrfanView)

Now everything works again, but I have no idea, what was the problem.

Let's see how long this will keep working well. I've had these issues before.

[Wojtek]

Alright, here it goes again.

TC (v11.01 x86) has forgotten the file associations again and there's nothing to bring them back.
I don't want to re-install everything and reset the defaults just to make TC remember which file to open with IrfanView.

Just tested other filetypes and it only seems broken for image files associated with IrfanView. Also checked if image files open correctly from Windows Explorer and they do.
So it must be a Total Commander issue.

Any idea?

[petermad]

2Wojtek

It sounds like it is Windows - not TC - that has "forgotten" the associations.

I recommend that you use the menu item: "Files" -> "Internal Associations (Total Commander Only)..." to set up associations for the file types you want opened in IrfanView with Double-click/Enter. Then you don't have to rely on Windows' unpredictable association schemes.

[Wojtek]

Hi @petermad

I just found out something interesting.
When trying to associate an image file (Main Menu > File > Associate with) the action field is empty (Don't know how to describe it, see screenshot on my OneDrive) while other files have the right entries.

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AqriqoLzwEu5gd0cCkzR7Y30lxiiIQ?e=eu6UOO

Will I have to manually associate all image file types?

[petermad]

Will I have to manually associate all image file types?

I you use "Internal Associations (Total Commander Only)" and NOT "Associate With", you can assign IrfanView to all the desired file types at once - see: https://tcmd.madsenworld.dk/associatetconly.png"

You can always add or delete file types for IrfanView later.

[ghisler(Author)]

"Associate With" changes the Windows associations, which has multiple limitations:
1. On newer Windows versions, Windows often changes associations as it pleases, e.g. when you install a new Windows Store app which can handle that association
2. When you use "Open With" in the context menu just ONCE to define a new default app, then Windows refuses all other methods to change the association.

[Wojtek]

Once again everything stopped working (Windows associations, internal associations).

I've set up TC's internal associations to open image files with IrfanView, but still the pop-up Window asks me which program to use each time I open an image file from TC.

What could be the problem?

[beb]

What could be the problem?

2Wojtek
As I may suppose, the message right above yours, by Christian Ghisler, answers your question, and there's nothing you can do with that.

So I ended up using the following approach:
I keep somewhere a folder (let's say called 'imageFormats') with a sample of each and every image format I'm primarily interested in.
When I see something gets wrong with the associations, I go to that folder to see what formats have been affected by another Windows update.
As soon as I am in there I restore the associations one by one by hand.
Let's say there are seven image formats of my primary interest, and each one requires up to ten seconds to be reset as I like, so it will take me about a minute max to restore my preferred environment.

NB I don't bother to keep any specific image sample, I just recreate them as needed with ImageMagick as follows:

Code: Select all

magick -size 32x32 xc:Aqua     sample_JPG_Aqua.jpg    
magick -size 32x32 xc:Black    sample_JPEG_Black.jpeg 
magick -size 32x32 xc:Blue     sample_BMP_Blue.bmp    
magick -size 32x32 xc:Honeydew sample_GIF_Honeydew.gif
magick -size 32x32 xc:Lime     sample_PCX_Lime.pcx    
magick -size 32x32 xc:Moccasin png32:sample_PNG_Moccasin.png
magick -size 32x32 xc:Tomato   sample_TIFF_Tomato.tiff

Surely, it does not truly resolve the issue, but at least it minimizes the time and effort to restore things.

[Dalai]

If TC's internal associations stopped working your wincmd.ini must have been changed or got corrupted somehow (or the associations are not set up properly). If it wasn't you, some program could have done it. Is the section [Associations] redirected into a separate file? If not, you might want to do that so you can easier create a backup of that file and restore it in such a case.

Regards
Dalai