Win 7 May 2015 update messes up Default programs/Open with.

[Clive Thorne]

It seems that the May 2017 Win 7 update (KD890830), which seems to be a malicious SW removal tool updates messes up default programs on my PC.

This particularly affects an old copy of Paintshop Pro (V7), and an old copy of AutoCad LT (2004).

I had JPEGs set to open in Paintshop Pro, and everything was just fine. After the May update the default program for JPEGs has changed to 'Windows Photo Viewer' and normal methods to change this do not work!

For example, If I do 'open with' on a JPG file and select 'Always use this program etc', then click on Paintshop Pro the file opens in Paint Shop Pro. However, if I close this and double click on the JPEG it still opens in Photo Viewer.

Similar problem with AutoCad LT except a double click on a DWG file says windows cannot open it. Again select AutoCad as the default and it opens in Autocad, but double click it and you're back where you started.

Tried all the methods I can to change this, including various "default program managers" but the problem remains. If I do a system restore to just before the update installed everything reverts back to normal.

Unfortunately the PC is updated by the company system automatically and I cannot disable updating.

Anyone else got this problem, or any ideas for solutions.


Thanks in advance,

Clive.

 

[Ranger4]

Have you discussed this problem with your company's IT section. Disabling Windows Updating is not a good idea & it seems your company requires that updating occurs, so you wont be able to change that.

 

[Clive Thorne]

Thanks for responding Ranger.

Unfortunately we're only a small company, so our "IT department" is about fifth of a man, who knows a lot more than I do, but is not a full blown trained IT man. He doesn't know what's doing it.

I take your poiunt, about updates, but blocking this particular update is currently a better solution for me than having to do a restore every time the computer auto updates.

 

[Ranger4]

Can you isolate the Update that causes the problem. You say you can use a Restore Point to go back before that Update & everything works. So if you can isolate that Update, you could uninstall it & then when it comes back again in a fresh Update you right click on it & select Hide. Doing that should stop that Update item being installed.

 

[TBugReporter]

I was going to post this as a separate thread, but it sounds like your problem might be similar to the one I've been trying to solve off and on for the past few years. For all that time, I've been wanting to be able to double-click on JPEG files and have my PC open Firefox in response, or add a tab to the running instance if Firefox is already running. Like your case, normal methods to change this didn't work for me - "Choose default program..." didn't list Firefox as an option, and the "Browse ..." button refused to add it as one. Now, after all this time, I've finally found out that what you're allowed to select as a default program in W7+ is controlled by a relatively new section of the registry, and that editing the registry can fix this. Now, I recognize that this will not remedy your problem directly (you'll likely have to do some more research to figure out exactly what to edit for your situation), but I thought it was important to get a general description of this technique out there for you and any others who may have been having similar problems.

As it turns out, Firefox apparently fails to tell Windows that it's capable of opening JPEGs (and GIFs, and PNGs) so when I tried to say "use Firefox", Windows retorted with "No, Firefox can't do that!". Once I edited the registry to say "Yes, Firefox can do that", everything started working the way I always wanted it to. Chances are, your old programs haven't told W7 what they can do in a way that it understands, and once you (and/or the other helpful people on this board) can determine exactly how to get W7 to recognize the capabilities of these programs, and make the necessary changes to the registry, you should be back in business.

Again, I apologize for the half-baked solution, but as I said, I came here only intending to post general information in the hope that someone would find it useful. I've attached a .reg file of the changes I made for my own case, and a screenshot of the result that people can compare to their own PC's, to help in figuring out exactly what needs to be done to fix your (or anybody else's) problem.