File associations screwed - anyone help?

[Carol Haynes]

All my graphics file associations are screwe up so that Explorer conext menu no longer has any open options ???

"Open With" menu consists of "Open With" and does nothing.

I have checked through folder options to see what is going on and files still have correct command assocations for Open, Print etc., they just don't appear in the context menu.

I tried reinstalling PhotoShop to see if that would reset all the file associations etc. correctly but it hasn't managed to change the context menu.

If I look at a file's properties and change the apllication used to open the file the application list has the "Always open with this application" ticked and greyed out.

Anyone got any idea what the heck is going on and how to fix it ?

[mouser]

first thing to try would be to reboot, sometimes windows gets confused.
have you tried that yet, if not try that first and then let us know.

[Carol Haynes]

Nah - rebooted umpteen times - also been switch off all night, and was messed up then too ...

[mouser]

did you recently add any new programs that modify the context menu?
another thing to try is, if you are using an alternative file explorer, definitely try windows explorer.

is it just the "open with" menu thats empty?

[AbteriX]

That looks like an wrong or damadged context-menu handler.

That's something like:

Code

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ * \ shellex \ ContextMenuHandlers \ something here
@="{3FBCD0B0-EB63-4737-9101-615610E83DF6}"

Are you aware with the registry ?
Could you save the hole HKCR\* sub-key
and than delete one by one item to see whats wrong ?
Need  you an step by step howto ?


------
If you search for "your" GUID you see by "Open With"
you should find an "InProcServer32"-Key with   "%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll" as Standard.

[Carol Haynes]

The really strange thing is that the context menu works correctly in Servant Salamander but not in Windows Explorer

Here are two images to compare:

The first one is from Windows Explorer - the second from Servant Salamander

Both have the Opne With ... submenu open

[mouser]

ive experienced that kind of thing - though usually the other way around.
and what i found is that some extension was breaking the display.
in my case it was rjh extensions, breaking the display of another shell menu.
you might try http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html
and maybe you can disable items and see if you can find a bad one?

[AbteriX]

Sala use his own code (salopen.exe if checkt), it's diff from WinExplorer

[AbteriX]

NirSoft, yeah, good point mouser.

Here's Ramesh's Windows XP Troubleshooting site with an ShellExView report:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks both of you.

I had completely forgotten about ShellEx (even though I have it installed).

It turned out to be two context handlers causing problems ...

IrfanView shell extension has long been installed on my system but now it causes the main context menu to lose its Open/Print etc. items from the top. The Open With ... menu is however left untouched.

But CryptoSuite was the big culprit - removing both Open/Print etc. and clearing the Open With Menu ....

Strangely these problems only applied to graphics files.

I presume there must be something more subtle going on with my system.

Could someone please confirm that the context menu work properly with Ghost Security Crypto Suite installed on a JPG file. (I am using windows XP Pro SP2) before I send a potential bug query to Jason 

[mouser]

i've told jason to come check out this thread, maybe he can shed some light, though this seems like one of those really tricky issues that might be effecting one machine out of many so i don't know how hard it would be to pin down.
so you're saying that both irfanview and cryptosuite in some way effect the open/print.. yeah it does seem like something strange might be going on elsewhere but just being triggered by them.

i have to tell you, you are very lucky to have noticed this so soon and gotten it solved right away.

i'm telling you when i had my problem with rjh extensions (which had been working perfectly for years), it nearly drove me insane because i had no idea what it could be causing my context menu to freak, and no shellexview to help me.  was hell.

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks, hopefully Jason will shed some light ... 

[tinyvillager]

Just installed CryptoSuite(good app and cheap )and haven't had this problem.I even rebooted and still haven't
experienced this.I'm using XP Pro Sp2,patches,etc.I still have all my original context options.And same goes with
the open with menu,still have all my options.I've had context problems in the past but not this.Best of luck.



Sidenote(off topic)
My problems was more along the lines of removing the WMP entries in the context menus,
hit run and type regsvr32 /u wmpshell.dll if that's ever the case.

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks for that tinyvillager - were your file associations OK for graphics files (they seemed to be the only ones affected for me - all the others were OK).

[tinyvillager]

Yeah,i just clicked on some .bmp,jpg,.png,etc.(graphic files)And nothing has changed on
my machine.Judging by your screenshots,i have alot of the same programs,Adobe Photoshop,etc.
I believe that's XnView your using as shell extension to show images on your menu?But yeah,
still have print on menu and everything,nothing has changed.That stinks,i'd hate for you to have
to reformat.Keep hacking away.

[Carol Haynes]

Hmmm ... went back to play with this and see if I can resolve the issue.

Disabled all context menu items in ShellEx and then re-enabled individually.

No probls with IrfanView Extension or Ghost Security CryptoSuite

- or anything else ... 

What I did find though was that leaving ShellPicture disabled allowed all other context menus to function ... so

I either have Shell Picture or IrfanView + CryptoSuite but not all three.

Very strange but I have removed Shell Picture for the moment.

Interestingly I had a copy of ACD mPowerTools which I hadn't used in a long time (since most of its functions are provided by ACDSee). mPowerTools also provides ContextMenu thumbnail for graphics files and loads of other options, but when I installed this I again got the same problem.

I wonder if it is to do with the way graphics are added to the context menu ??

Any one got any other context menu addons that add graphics so that I can test this theory out?