which was in deleting the whole

...\FileExts\.txt\

I was able to maintain my machine code too,
here is the new version (final I hope) with my associations,
anyone can adjust it to his needs of course of replace HKLM to HKCU if he wants:

https://textuploader.com/1awwn/raw

as you can see I’m deleting everything before the operation, so there is no txt_auto_file or anything, however that doesnt work still

Actually, what you just showed never mentioned txt_auto_file, so I cannot see that you’re deleting everything.

Have you actually verified in regedit that it’s done the additions and deletions that you are expecting?

From a command line,

REG QUERY HKCU\Software\Classes\.txt /s
REG QUERY HKLM\Software\Classes\.txt /s
REG QUERY HKCU\Software\Classes\txt /s
REG QUERY HKLM\Software\Classes\txt /s
REG QUERY HKCU\Software\Classes\txt_auto_file /s
REG QUERY HKLM\Software\Classes\txt_auto_file /s

Other than that, I don’t know what else to suggest.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.txt]
@="txt"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\txt\DefaultIcon]
@="\"D:\\Utilities\\PortableApps\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\",0"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt]
@="Text Document"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell]
@="Notepad++"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell\Notepad++]
@="Edit With Notepad++"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell\Notepad++\command]
@="\"D:\\Utilities\\PortableApps\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\" \"%1\""

as you can see I’m deleting everything before the operation, so there is no txt_auto_file or anything, however that doesnt work still

The hash you are mentioning, from your original post:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\UserChoice]
"ProgId"="txt_auto_file"
"Hash"="q4kw7ShKh2M="

Is part of the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt that I told you to delete – it will delete the .txt and everything under it, including your hash.

While quoting that piece from your original post, I see what may have been going on from the start: You are telling windows that the current user has chosen the program ID (ProgID) of “txt_auto_file”. But then you are defining the details of the file type, not under txt_auto_file, but under txt – so you were telling Windows that the user had chosen a different association for .txt than you were defining, so windows was still using your old “txt_auto_file” rather than the new “txt”.

The reg file I was talking about was

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.txt]
@="txt"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\txt\DefaultIcon]
@="\"D:\\Utilities\\PortableApps\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\",0"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt]
@="Text Document"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell]
@="Notepad++"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell\Notepad++]
@="Eko3 Edit With Notepad++"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell\Notepad++\command]
@="\"D:\\Utilities\\PortableApps\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\" \"%1\""

… which does not contain a hash. Using that file, and the steps I described above, the association worked just fine.

(edit: well, okay, almost that file. I had to add the registry header line, and I converted the path to notepad++.exe to work for my setup.)

• If there already is a HKLM\Software\Classes\.txt, you have to delete it using Admin privileges
• If there already is a HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt, delete it (shouldn’t require Admin, because it’s Current User)
  • I also removed any *.txt from HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ApplicationAssociationToasts\ – I don’t know if that’s required (I don’t think so), but I had already done it, so…
• Then run your .reg file shown, which will set up the HKCU\Software\Classes\.txt
• Then do a refresh (reboot, or logout/login, or nircmd shellrefresh && nircmd sysrefresh)
• When I did all that, my old association with .txt was gone, and it shows up using the one from your .reg sequence (I actually used “DRD Text Document” as the name and “DRD Edit With Notepad++” to disambiguate from my other naming scheme)

If I then re-instate the HKLM\Software\Classes\.txt assocation (Admin regedit) and remove the HKCU\Software\Classes\.txt assoc (normal user regedit) and refresh, it goes back to using my old assocation.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.txt]
@="txt"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\txt\DefaultIcon]
@="\"D:\\Utilities\\PortableApps\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\",0"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt]
@="Text Document"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell]
@="Notepad++"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell\Notepad++]
@="Eko3 Edit With Notepad++"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\txt\shell\Notepad++\command]
@="\"D:\\Utilities\\PortableApps\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe\" \"%1\""

it doesn’t work

can you try the same @PeterJones?

I just tried an experiment where I created HKCU\Software\Classes\.eko2 (.eko was my write-to-HKCR experiment, so wanted a new extension), and pointed it to my existing txtfile type; when I do that and refresh environment, it associates .eko2 file extension with txtfile, and thus opens with Notepad++ when I double-click… When I look back through the registry, the .eko2 key exists in HKCU\Software\Classes where I put it, and also exists as HKCR\.eko2, but does not exist as HKLM\Software\Classes\.eko2, so I believe that writing to HKCU\Software\Classes\ is safer.

As another experiment, I created HKCU\Software\Classes\EkoThreeType with (default) = Eko palypse type 3, subkey shell, subkey Notepad++ (default)=notepad++... then HKCU\Software\Classes\.eko3 (default)=EkoThreeType. It also properly associated.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\EkoThreeType]
@="Eko palypse type 3"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\EkoThreeType\shell]
@="Notepad++"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\EkoThreeType\shell\Notepad++]
@="Eko3 Edit With Notepad++"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\EkoThreeType\shell\Notepad++\command]
@="\"c:\\usr\\local\\scripts\\notepad++.bat\" \"%1\""

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.eko3]
@="EkoThreeType"

So, even using HKCU\Software\Classes, I can associate a file extension and new filetype for myself.

-----
PS: for refresh, i use nircmd shellrefresh and nircmd sysrefresh, using the NirSoft nircmd utility. This avoids having to reboot or log in/out for every change.

(edit: that doesn’t mean it’s the “right” way to do it; I’ve just never had a problem with it.)

An example of me recently verifying that the old-style assocation works can be found on superuser. maybe it’s because the .0-.9 extensions were ones that weren’t already being interfered with using the Classes/FilesExts assocation.

https://textuploader.com/1awwn/raw

I found out that some files need the “hash” in registry which is awkward,
because I don’t know if it will work in another pc,
but I don’t have another 8.1,
so if anyone wants to test it

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.txt]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\txt]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\.txt]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\txt]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\UserChoice]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Roaming\OpenWith\FileExts\.txt\UserChoice]

and tried yours and no error was shown but when tried to open .txt file it asked what I wanted to open it with

import ctypes
import ctypes.wintypes as wintypes
from Npp import notepad, MESSAGEBOXFLAGS


# modify this two variables to your needs
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NPP_FULL_PATH = u'D:\\PortableApps\\Npp\\notepad++.exe'
FILE_EXT = ['.txt','.xml']

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


shell32 = ctypes.WinDLL('shell32')
advapi32 = ctypes.WinDLL('advapi32')

SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED = 0x08000000
SHCNF_IDLIST = 0

HKEY_CURRENT_USER = -2147483647
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = -2147483646
KEY_ALL_ACCESS = 0xf003f
REG_SZ = 1
ERROR_SUCCESS = 0x0

SUB_KEY = u'Software\\Classes\\{}'
NPPNAME = u'Notepad++_file'
DOCTYP = u'Notepad++ Document'
NPP_ICON = u'"{}",0'.format(NPP_FULL_PATH)
NPP_COMMAND = u'"{}" "%1"'.format(NPP_FULL_PATH)


def set_reg_value(root_key, value):
    try:
        result = advapi32.RegSetValueExW(root_key,
                                         None,
                                         0,
                                         REG_SZ,
                                         value,
                                         len(value) * ctypes.sizeof(wintypes.c_wchar))

        if result == ERROR_SUCCESS:
            print('successfully set {}'.format(value))
        else:
            notepad.messageBox('Aborting as error {} occured'.format(result), 'ERROR', MESSAGEBOXFLAGS.ICONERROR)
    except Exception as e:
        raise IOError('{}'.format(e))
    finally:
        advapi32.RegCloseKey(root_key)


def create_reg_entries(root_key, sub_key):
    try:
        phkResult = wintypes.HKEY()
        dwDisp = wintypes.DWORD()
        result = advapi32.RegCreateKeyExW(root_key,
                                          sub_key,
                                          0,
                                          None,
                                          0,
                                          KEY_ALL_ACCESS,
                                          None,
                                          ctypes.byref(phkResult),
                                          ctypes.byref(dwDisp)
                                          )
        if result == ERROR_SUCCESS:
            if dwDisp.value in [1, 2]:
                print '\nKey {} has been {}'.format(sub_key, 'created' if dwDisp == 1 else 'opened')
            else:
                notepad.messageBox('Unexpected disposition value received:{}'.format(dwDisp), 'WARNING', MESSAGEBOXFLAGS.ICONWARNING)
    except Exception as e:
        advapi32.RegCloseKey(root_key)
        raise IOError('{}'.format(e))

    return phkResult


def create_npp_link(root_key):
    _key = create_reg_entries(root_key, SUB_KEY.format(NPPNAME))
    set_reg_value(_key, DOCTYP)
    _key = create_reg_entries(root_key, SUB_KEY.format(u'Notepad++_file\\DefaultIcon'))
    set_reg_value(_key, NPP_ICON)
    _key = create_reg_entries(root_key, SUB_KEY.format(u'Notepad++_file\\shell\\open\\command'))
    set_reg_value(_key, NPP_COMMAND)
    return True


def register_extensions(root_key):
    for extension in FILE_EXT:
        _key = create_reg_entries(root_key, SUB_KEY.format(extension))
        set_reg_value(_key, NPPNAME)
    return True


def main():
    result = notepad.messageBox(('YES for USER only\n\n'
                                 'NO for MACHINE\n\n'
                                 'CANCEL to abort'), 'FileExtension Registration', 3)

    if result == MESSAGEBOXFLAGS.RESULTYES:
        _HKEY = HKEY_CURRENT_USER
    elif result == MESSAGEBOXFLAGS.RESULTNO:
        _HKEY = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    else:
        return

    if create_npp_link(_HKEY):
        if register_extensions(_HKEY):
            result = notepad.messageBox('Should the system be informed about the changes?', 'Inform System', 4)
            if result == MESSAGEBOXFLAGS.RESULTYES:
                shell32.SHChangeNotify(SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED, SHCNF_IDLIST, None, None)
    else:
        notepad.messageBox('Unable to open or create Notepad++_file key', 'ERROR', MESSAGEBOXFLAGS.ICONERROR)

main()

as for the your question, yes, silent is fine,
if I was writing the script,
I would choose machine silently too

While thinking about the dialog to ask for confirmation about
creating the Notepad++_file link - does it really makes sense?
I mean, if one runs the script the idea is to have the extensions
registered and this means you need to have the key.
I guess silently setting the key is ok.

Other question to everyone reading this,
Does someone know a way to refresh the icon cache?
Currently, if you run the script and, let’s say you want to register
.xml to be opened with npp, you still see the previous icon until
you logon/logoff.
It would be nice if I could force to reload the icon cache so that the
npp icon is shown. I haven’t found any good side describing what
needs to be done yet.

Have to go back to work :-)

A.)
Check if Notepad++_file link is found
if found, run the script like it is now
if not found, open a dialog and asking if such a key should be created?
or
B.)
something else in mind?