Association error "Cannot find the file..."

[RichPasco]

I recently "upgraded" my Windows 2000 system to Textpad 5.0.3, and have a problem.

If I double-click on a text file in Explorer (or enter its name on a command line), then after Textpad opens the file as it should, I get the message:

(X) Cannot find the file [filename.txt] (or one of its components). Make sure the path and filename are correct and that all required libraries are available. [OK]

In Control Panel / Folder Options / File Types, .TXT is supposed to open with TextPad.

In my registry, HK_CLASSES_ROOT/Applications/Textpad.exe/shell/open/command is set to "C:\Program Files\TextPad 5\TextPad.exe" -s "%1"

If I enter that entire command on the command line (substituting the name of my existing file for %1) then TextPad opens the file without complaint. But if I enter just the filename on the command line, the above-mentioned error is shown.

If I first launch TextPad, then I can open the file with its File/Open dialog without complaint.

If I change the association to open with Notepad, then double-clicking a text file or typing its filename on the command line opens a Notepad session without complaint.

If I change it back to TextPad, the problem recurs.

With REGEDIT, I changed the remaining instances of "TextPad 4" to "TextPad 5" and rebooted. No change.

Except for the error message, everything seems to work. But it is startling, and annoying to have to click [OK] to dismiss it.

Any suggestions?

[Jake]

You are not alone. I've tried all the suggestions for eliminating this bug, yet it still persists.

[scottdevries]

I am having what appears to be the identical problem. I am on Windows XP service pack 2.

[gan]

Maybe using Process Monitor from sysinternals/Microsoft to see what textpad actually does can help to find out what is causing the error. I been using process monitor several times to find out what is going on. You could easily create a filter for textpad.exe only to prevent the information from all processes in windows since that would be a lot of lines is just a few seconds.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysint ... nitor.mspx

I had some strange issues after upgrading from TP4 to TP5 so i uninstalled TP4 and TP5, Removed anything on my harddisk related to Helios and Textpad and did the same thing in registry before i rebooted and reinstalled TP5. That solved all the problems i had.

[RRBeatty]

I encountered the same problem on my Win2k system with TextPad v4.7.3: after upgrading to v5.0, v5.0.2 and v5.0.3, I experienced major problems perfoming regex Find & Replace. So I uninstalled v5.0.3 and re-installed v4.7.3. After downgrading, I got the "or one of its components" error message when double-clicking *any* file.

What has worked for me:
I opened up Windows Explorer
Tools > Folder Options > File Types
Scrolled down and selected "TXT"
Hit the Advanced button
Under "Actions:" selected "open"
Hit the "Edit" button
*** In "Application used to perform..." changed "...\TextPad 5\..." to "...\TextPad 4\..."
*** Cleared the "Application:" field
Hit OK, OK, Close

*** Be sure to perform both of these changes

After the above changes, TextPad v4 opens my TXT files without complaint.

I realize that this solution is laborious to implement for each associated file extension.

Anyway, I hope this helps,

Roy Beatty

[Cloink]

Not as simple as this for me, I'm on WinXP.

In RRBeatty's instructions, if you don't see an 'Advanced' button, select 'Restore' first, then 'Advanced' appears.

Then (if had to click Restore first), instead of "Edit", you need to do "New", and enter "open" in the first box. Second box is

Code: Select all

<path>\textpad.exe -s "%1"

DON'T select 'Use DDE'. OK everything. If you must select DDE, keep reading.

If you DID see an Advanced button straight off...

In some instances I was able to just uncheck 'Use DDE', then OK everything.

In some instances, I needed to change the path to the new textpad.exe, as per RRBeatty. When this happened, I also needed to re-type "open" in the first box in the dialogue. BUT. Clearing the "Application:" field did not work.

Instead, I cleared the "DDE Message:" box; this worked. Or...

Entering "TextPad.5.0" in the "Application:" box worked - with ".5.0" on the end. I'm actually on v5.1 so I can't say if this will work for you.

Phew.

What do I win?

You could go to my Enhancement Polls and vote:-
http://forums.textpad.com/viewtopic.php?t=9074
http://forums.textpad.com/viewtopic.php?t=9093

[datalinks]

Has this been resolved yet. I have returned to 4.7.2 so I do not have the error message. It is not acceptable to work with this error window everytime the file opens in TP.

[uws]

I tried all the previous suggestions, nothing did quite work.

The following simple solution did.

Go to any .txt file
Right Mouse-click -- Properties
Click on Change
Select a Non-textpad program (e.g. notepad)
Do again, and select textpad.

This eliminated the Windows error for me (Windows XP, texpad 5.2)

[RichPasco]

With thanks to Cloink, I solved it rather easily.

In Windows Explorer I went to Tools / Folder Options / File Types

I selected TXT which had been set to "Opens with Textpad" and said I had customized files with this extension. I clicked "Restore" which made it revert to the general type "Text Document." Then, to change settings for that, I clicked "Advanced", selected "Open" and clicked the "Edit" button. I un-checked "Use DDE" and clicked OK all the way out.

Now, when I double-click on a TXT file, it opens in Textpad straight away without the annoying "Cannot find the file ... (or one of its components)."

[nam6869]

I tried all the previous suggestions, nothing did quite work.

The following simple solution did.

Go to any .txt file
Right Mouse-click -- Properties
Click on Change
Select a Non-textpad program (e.g. notepad)
Do again, and select textpad.

This eliminated the Windows error for me (Windows XP, texpad 5.2)

Thanks - I love simplicity! Worked like a dream. Funny this happened on my XP Pro SP3 machine but not my SP2 laptop??

[mrdctaylor]

None of this worked for me (Vista Enterprise, SP1). I uninstalled 5.2 and installed 4.7.3 which worked for me on my old XP machine. It works perfectly now. I'm not sure why 5.2 is so buggy. I guess I'll keep using a version from 5 years ago!