Notepad++ 8.4.2 not recognizing file extension to define language

Pallieguy

I missed the edit window to correct this, sorry.

Before my taskbar screenshot I meant to say:
Opening N++ by opening a file in Windows Explorer also shows a a second N++ icon in my taskbar:

PeterJones

@pallieguy said in Notepad++ 8.4.2 not recognizing file extension to define language:

Unpinning the old shortcut (originally pinned so long ago I don’t recall which N++ version it was) and pinning the new one Fixed the problem entirely.

Yeah. I wonder if you still have a residual notepad++ installation somewhere else other than your newly-pinned shortcut.

Actually, your data actually already shows that. Earlier, you were running from C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe, as your Debug Info showed. Your REG QUERY output showed

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\notepad++.exe\shell\open\command
    (Default)    REG_SZ    "D:\Notepad++\notepad++.exe" "%1"

(though I didn’t see it yesterday, because I didn’t scroll far enough in your black box)

So when you double-click when no notepad++ was running, it ran your D:-drive copy of Notepad++. If you used your old shortcut, it was apparently running your C:-drive copy … and then, because you presumably don’t have multi-instance enabled, when you double clicked, it tried to run the D:-drive copy, but saw the C:-drive copy running and opened the file with that instead.

Since I believe you pinned the copy that was associated, I believe your pin should now point to the D:-drive copy. If so, I would recommend removing the C:-drive copy, to avoid future confusion. But check your pin to make sure: right click on the pin, then right click on the notepad++ near the bottom, then select “properties”: the Target field will show which one is now pinned.

Pallieguy

@peterjones
I do indeed have a C: and a D: install, I wonder when I did that?

Glad this is resolved, thanks fro all your help!

PeterJones

@pallieguy said in Notepad++ 8.4.2 not recognizing file extension to define language:

I wonder when I did that?

Probably at one of the updates: there was a while when the installer would not notice an old installation if it wasn’t in c:\program files\notepad++, so even if you had installed to D:\notepad++\, the updater/installer would put the newer copy in c:\program files\notepad++ instead. IIRC, that has been fixed (I spent a couple minutes searching through the issues list, but wasn’t using a narrow enough set of search terms, so couldn’t find it buried in all the other results), so the next time you run the installer/updater for whatever version you end up keeping, it should hopefully default to the existing location.