Problems opening multiple files from context menu

[vapspwi]

I've just gotten a new machine at work, and also installed the latest version of Textpad on that new machine. I've noticed a really irritating problem that I've never seen before.

When I select multiple files in Windows Explorer, right click, and select the "Textpad" option from the context menu, sometimes nothing happens. Normally, Textpad launches (if it's not already open) and the selected files are automatically loaded. Now, though, nothing happens at all - Textpad doesn't launch, and if Textpad is already open, the files are not loaded.

I thought at first it was a problem with number of files - in one case, it worked fine with 37 files selected, but failed with 38. But now I think it may be dependent on the lengths of the file names - I tried again with some files with longer names, and the break point was 29 files. But even that doesn't make sense, if I calculate the total number of characters in the file names in each case.

Has anybody experienced this problem? Any idea how to solve it?

JRjr

[vapspwi]

I rolled back to Textpad 5.1 on the same machine to see if that would solve the problem, but it didn't - same symptoms under the same circumstances.

This is a Core 2 Duo machine running XP32 SP3.

Trying a few different things to debug:

If I use the "Send To -> Textpad" context menu option instead of just "Textpad," I get an error message in the conditions where Textpad fails to open the selected files:

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item"

The plain "Textpad" option fails silently.

JRjr

[Ralf]

I have the same issue with TextPad 5.2 on Windows XP SP3:
I cannot open more then 18 files from the context menu.
Is there any news on this?

[vapspwi]

I have the same issue with TextPad 5.2 on Windows XP SP3:
I cannot open more then 18 files from the context menu.
Is there any news on this?

It's hard to find good information on this problem via Google, but I did find a few interesting things.

One, the problem was apparently also present in Textpad 4. I have access to another machine (XP SP2) that had an older version on it, and it had the same problem.

Two, it doesn't seem to be limited to Textpad. One of the few hits I found when searching for information on the problem was from somebody that was having the same problem with a context menu for some other program (something from Adobe).

It seems like it may actually be a Windows problem, but I don't really understand what's causing it or why I haven't seen it in the past.

JRjr

[talleyrand]

I could be mistaken, but I believe Helios commented in another thread that the limitation and variation, is due to path lengths + file name and the window's file open mechanism has a max length to it.