File association confusion (double click cannot open *.fit or *.xisf in PI)

[pja]

I have found this issue on one laptop with Win 8.1 64-bit and a desktop with Win 7 64-bit.  In both incidence, I directly install 1.8.4 on top of 1.8.3.  It seems that Windows registry was not updated (just my suspicion) so that double-click on the associated file will not open it in PI.   I have uninstalled PI completely and re-install 1.8.4, but the problem still stay.

Thank you for looking into this minor bug. 

[Juan Conejero]

The PixInsight core application does not use the Windows registry at all. On Windows, file associations with the PixInsight core application must be established manually by the user. This limitation is by design, so there is no bug. For some reason, the file associations that you had created for version 1.8.3 have not been preserved when you have installed version 1.8.4, so you'll have to create them again.

On OS X and modern X11 desktops (Linux/FreeBSD) file associations are managed automatically by the operating system in a clean and safe way through configuration files (.plist and .desktop files, respectively). The Windows registry is an obsolete, obscure and unsafe structure IMO, which has caused us lots of problems and compatibility issues in the past. Perhaps a future version of PixInsight for Windows will use it somewhat, but right now we are well without depending on it, so this is not a priority.

[pja]

Thank you for the reply.  And we all know that Windows sucks.  Unfortunately, my daily job still needs it to run those mutli-k tools at this stage so we engineer always can work around the limitation, right? 

So under my limitation, how can I fix the file association issue.  I have specifically chose other software to be associated with *.fit file and then set the association back to exact path of PI.exe, but it didn't work.  Anywhere I can work on (some config files that under your control)?

thanks!

[Juan Conejero]

There are no configuration files to manage file associations in the Windows version of PixInsight. I am not a Windows user, so hopefully other users will help you with this issue. This is a system configuration problem. Are you sure you are specifying "C:\Program Files\PixInsight\bin\PixInsight.exe" (or wherever you've installed the application) ?

[pja]

Yes, I was specifically set the executable with that path as the "default software".  However, whenever I right click on the *.fit, Windows still shows PI 1.8.3 as the default software. 

I would like to clarify the problem.  If PI was not running and I double click on the *.fit.  PI 1.8.4 would run and the file was opened.  However, any further double click on *.fit file will not open the file in PI.  Another case, if PI is already running with no file opened, double click on *.fit will also not open the file in PI.

[msmythers]

In windows you can change the default program association by opening Control Panel, Programs, Default Programs and Associate a file type or protocol with a program. Then you find the file type(.fit) and click Change Program. If the new version of PI is not listed(icons) then you can browse to the new PI installation folder and find the PI executable and select it.


Mike

[pja]

Thanks for the hint, but those basic diligence have been done.  I have tried
* simply using right click context menu to switch back and forth to PI or other default program
* Using Control Panel > Program > Make a file type always open in a specific program > (wait for the gigantic list) > choose one for *.fit

As I said, the 1st double click on *.fit will run PI and open the file.  However, if the PI is already running, double click on *.fit will not open it in PI.  It is not a straightforward problem.

And it happens on both my home Win8.1 laptop and office Win7 desktop.  So it is consistent.

[hbeing]

Same issue here, Dell laptop.
I have associated with 1.8.4 but no joy.

Dell I7 15" Win 10.
The file association icon still shows 1.8.3 no matter what I do.

Peter

[Juan Conejero]

The file association icon still shows 1.8.3 no matter what I do.

Please note that this is completely out of our control. The PixInsight application has nothing to do with file association problems at the operating system level.