MANY problems with TextPad 6.1.3 - Why no fixes yet???

[type7c]

I have had several problems with TextPad 6.1.3, and I can see that I am not alone.

I installed TextPad 6.1.3 on my Windows 7 Pro 64-bit machine and I am having the following problems:

The "Context Menu" checkbox does not work at all, as described by other people in other threads.

The "Replace Notepad" checkbox works at first glance, but it seems to really screw up my file associations for TextPad somehow.

The "Allow multiple files on the command line" checkbox does not seem to work, or at least it does not work in this scenario: When I highlight multiple files in explorer, right click them, and open with textpad, it will only open ONE of the files.

I tried all of this in a *fresh* Windows XP SP3 virtual machine to confirm that the problem isn't just my machine. I had pretty much the same problems in the VM.

Everything I have listed here worked fine on 5.4.2.

Honestly there are probably more problems but I stopped here because these problems alone make TextPad 6.1.3 worthless to me. I ended up removing TextPad 6.1.3, cleaning the registry by hand a bit, and re-installing TextPad 5.4.2. I am done with 6.1.3.

I have been a loyal licensed Textpad user for a long time and I am disappointed that this release has caused me so much frustration. I am further disappointed that these problems have existed since July and there have been no fixes offered by Helios. We are all just hanging here.

Sadly it may be time to drop TextPad as my favored editor and choose something else.

Helios - please see my other thread about a suggested plan to resurrect TextPad.

[ak47wong]

Helios - please see my other thread about a suggested plan to resurrect TextPad.

Is there another thread? I can't see it. But I agree with the rest of your post. A lot of problems were reported with all the version 6 releases and Helios seemed to have gone on a long holiday for the past two months.

[type7c]

Helios - please see my other thread about a suggested plan to resurrect TextPad.

Is there another thread? I can't see it. But I agree with the rest of your post. A lot of problems were reported with all the version 6 releases and Helios seemed to have gone on a long holiday for the past two months.

Posted now.

[bbadmin]

The "Context Menu" checkbox does not work at all, as described by other people in other threads.

I cannot reproduce this problem. Have you been manually editing the entries that TextPad writes to the registry?

It requires ShellExt64.dll to be in the system subfolder of the folder containing textpad.exe. Did you install TextPad with the installer, or copy it from somewhere else?

The "Replace Notepad" checkbox works at first glance, but it seems to really screw up my file associations for TextPad somehow.

That option does not change any file associations. It simply causes the shell to start textpad.exe whenever it tries to run notepad.exe, passing it the same parameters.

The "Allow multiple files on the command line" checkbox does not seem to work, or at least it does not work in this scenario: When I highlight multiple files in explorer, right click them, and open with textpad, it will only open ONE of the files.

That option changes how TextPad interprets spaces in filenames on the command line. When it's set, any filename containing spaces must be quoted. If you've been messing around with TextPad entries in the registry, make sure that %1 is quoted appropriately.

[chazpope]

[quote="bbadmin"][i]The "Context Menu" checkbox does not work at all, as described by other people in other threads.[/i]

I cannot reproduce this problem. Have you been manually editing the entries that TextPad writes to the registry?

It requires ShellExt64.dll to be in the system subfolder of the folder containing textpad.exe. Did you install TextPad with the installer, or copy it from somewhere else?

[/quote]

No it does not work ! I have 6.1.3 (win7) and I have shellext64.dll in the system subfolder . I have not screwed around with the registry

I have NO Texpad in the context menu (it is in the Send To menu) like I used to have before - this is very very annoying

[bbadmin]

Run regedit.exe and have a look at the values under this key:

Code: Select all

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\{ABECE8A0-FF84-4efb-82AE-9B3181CE097D}\InProcServer32

(Default) should be set to "C:\Program Files (x86)\TextPad 6\System\shellext64.dll"

The path may vary, depending on where you installed TextPad, and the "64" will be "32" on 32-bit Windows.

ThreadingMode should be set to "Appartment".

Next, look at the value under this key:

Code: Select all

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\TextPad

(Default) should be set to "{ABECE8A0-FF84-4efb-82AE-9B3181CE097D}"

Windows Explorer reads those registry entries when it starts up, and dynamically loads shellext64.dll. Then, it calls an API in that DLL before it displays its context menu, to check if it should add the TextPad entry.

The version of shellext64.dll should also be checked by right clicking it in Windows Explorer and choosing Properties, then selecting the Details tab. Version 1.7 is current.

I hope this helps.

[chazpope]

Hi

I do not have the CLSID entry in Classes at all

The second thing is same as yours

what next ?

[bbadmin]

Hmmm. TextPad assumes that the CLSID key exists, so that's what's going wrong. As a workaround:

1. In TextPad, uncheck the Context Menu option and click Apply.
2. In regedit.exe, right click HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and choose New Key.
3. Type CLSID and click OK.
4. Back in TextPad check the Context Menu option and click Apply.

I hope that works!

[type7c]

The "Context Menu" checkbox does not work at all, as described by other people in other threads.

I cannot reproduce this problem. Have you been manually editing the entries that TextPad writes to the registry?

It requires ShellExt64.dll to be in the system subfolder of the folder containing textpad.exe. Did you install TextPad with the installer, or copy it from somewhere else?

The "Replace Notepad" checkbox works at first glance, but it seems to really screw up my file associations for TextPad somehow.

That option does not change any file associations. It simply causes the shell to start textpad.exe whenever it tries to run notepad.exe, passing it the same parameters.

The "Allow multiple files on the command line" checkbox does not seem to work, or at least it does not work in this scenario: When I highlight multiple files in explorer, right click them, and open with textpad, it will only open ONE of the files.

That option changes how TextPad interprets spaces in filenames on the command line. When it's set, any filename containing spaces must be quoted. If you've been messing around with TextPad entries in the registry, make sure that %1 is quoted appropriately.

I just wanted to respond by saying that I have confirmed most of these problems by installing TextPad 6.1.3 into a fresh Windows XP Pro SP3 32-bit virtual machine.

Maybe I should painstakingly screencap my process so you guys can see that most or all of things I have written are pretty much broken in my experience.

Also, reverting to TextPad 5.4.2 always clears up all of my problems, on all of my machines.

[bbadmin]

type7c, please submit a bug report on the problems you are having. It will help if you give details of precisely what happens after you make those configuration changes, so we can try to reproduce it. You do not need to do this for the problem with the Context menu in Windows Explorer, because we know what that is and have posted a workaround above.

[dforrest]

The "Context Menu" checkbox does not work at all, as described by other people in other threads.

I cannot reproduce this problem. Have you been manually editing the entries that TextPad writes to the registry?

It requires ShellExt64.dll to be in the system subfolder of the folder containing textpad.exe. Did you install TextPad with the installer, or copy it from somewhere else?

The "Replace Notepad" checkbox works at first glance, but it seems to really screw up my file associations for TextPad somehow.

That option does not change any file associations. It simply causes the shell to start textpad.exe whenever it tries to run notepad.exe, passing it the same parameters.

The "Allow multiple files on the command line" checkbox does not seem to work, or at least it does not work in this scenario: When I highlight multiple files in explorer, right click them, and open with textpad, it will only open ONE of the files.

That option changes how TextPad interprets spaces in filenames on the command line. When it's set, any filename containing spaces must be quoted. If you've been messing around with TextPad entries in the registry, make sure that %1 is quoted appropriately.

All of these problems, except the one referring to the ShellExt64.dll file, apply to me and I do not even know where the TextPad registry entries are located.

[jpesenti]

After installing 6.1.3 on Win2008 R2 64 bit. If I right click on the readme.txt file and select Open With ... Textpad, it opens OK

If I double click on the readme.txt file, I get a series of message boxes:

Ok to create 'C:\Program'
Ok to create 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Textpad 6\Files'
Ok to create 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Textpad 6\(x86)\Textpad'
Ok to create 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Textpad 6\6\README.TXT'

I click NO to each of these and the result is a Textpad window with no files open.

I did some experimenting with command lines using the RUN dialog, and found that when I enter:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\TextPad 6\TextPad.exe" "C:\Program Files (x86)\TextPad 6\README.TXT"

Everything works as expected. However doubling up on the quotes around the file name:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\TextPad 6\TextPad.exe" ""C:\Program Files (x86)\TextPad 6\README.TXT""

Causes the exact same set of message boxes as double clicks.

I also noticed that "Copy as path" from the Shift/Context Menu also provides quotes around paths with spaces, whereas my old standby XP powertoy, Send to Clipboard as name did not provide quotes.

-jp

[chazpope]

[quote="bbadmin"]Hmmm. TextPad assumes that the CLSID key exists, so that's what's going wrong. As a workaround:
[list=1][*]In TextPad, uncheck the Context Menu option and click Apply.
[*]In regedit.exe, right click HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and choose New Key.
[*]Type CLSID and click OK.
[*]Back in TextPad check the Context Menu option and click Apply.
[/list]
I hope that works![/quote]

I tried the above - it did not work, I swore and got on with my work ...

After a while the level of annoyance with this rose up again and I went back to it - only to realise that what you wrote does not include the [b]Classes[/b] subfolder ! When I created CLSID in the Classes subfolder it started to work and can be switched on and off

also the trick to quote on this forum escapes me ...

[ak47wong]

also the trick to quote on this forum escapes me ...

Did you select the Disable BBCode in this post check box when posting a reply? You need to clear it. (The default value of the check box is set in your Profile in the setting Always allow BBCode.)

[chazpope]

Did you select the Disable BBCode in this post check box when posting a reply? You need to clear it.

thanks, I saw it but I my brain told me checked meant 'Enable'