File association won't stick

[terrypin]

This has me stumped. Seems to have arisen since updating my version of TextPad 7 to 7.6.3 (64-bit) on this Win 10 PC yesterday



That -s is puzzling?

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[terrypin]

Finally fixed this.

A program repair didn't help and it stubbornly persisted even after a
full uninstall with Revo Uninstaller, which also removed all its
registry entries.

IOW, with TextPad uninstalled, and no such file as
"C:\Program Files (x86)\TextPad 7\TextPad.exe"
I was still being asked if wanted to keep using that program!

I re-installed a couple of times with no success. During one period
when it was not installed I even associated the .TXT extension with
Notepad, and then tried unsuccessfully switching to TextPad after yet
another reinstallation.

It seemed clear that the registry must have got scrambled when I
updated my version of the program recently, changing to the 64-bit
version at the same time. The executable should be
C:\Program Files\TextPad 7\, not
C:\Program Files (x86)\TextPad 7\

I uninstalled (fully) once more and ran CCleaner (a couple of times)
then re-installed again. Success.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[AmigoJack]

I updated my version of the program recently, changing to the 64-bit version

So you have a 64bit Windows, and had a 32bit TextPad, which was (correctly) located in \Program Files (x86)\? This might sound unthrilling to you, but updating 32bit to 64bit is not possible in a technical sense, because: yes, 64bit programs must reside in \Program Files\. And registry settings are also stored in different locations for 32bit and 64bit programs.

You should have first uninstalled the 32bit version and then install the 64bit version in its correct folder. It should even be possible to have both versions installed parallely. But since file extensions can only be associated with one installation the Explorer was confused about your parallel installations.

Why haven't you tried it thru TextPad itself? Configure > Preferences > Associated Files > New extension = .txt > Add?

ran CCleaner (a couple of times)

This is never a good idea. I know users of this program are convinced by its usefulness, but effectively it causes more trouble than help.

[terrypin]

Thanks, I'm sure you're right that uninstalling the 32-bit version first would have prevented this 'registry scrambling'. But for two different versions in separate folders that didn't seem necessary, and also offered me an easy fall back if the new version was unsatisfactory.

As for CCleaner, I've used it for at least a decade and haven't had any problem I can confidently attribute to it. With registry backups I don't think it's a real risk.

TXT was already in the list of associations.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK