WARNING-on PC Calibre takes over MANY file associations

[AnotherCat]

Another possibility is if Splinetime's PC did the Windows 10 Creators update and that screwed things up or precipitated a user interaction that did so (update started rolling out 11Apr17, ver1703 if I recall correctly).

Not that I have heard of any problems along those lines except that I have heard (on the internet so the claim may be a load of rubbish) that now Edge after that update reads epubs that some claim their epub reading changed to defaulting to Edge.

[JSWolf]

I just took a look at the computer I am using and there is not a single file extension associated with Calibre. I'll check the laptop and see. This is Windows 7. The laptop is Windows 10. But Even there I doubt it.

[Sami]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Another possibility is if Splinetime's PC did the Windows 10 Creators update and that screwed things up or precipitated a user interaction that did so (update started rolling out 11Apr17, ver1703 if I recall correctly).

Not that I have heard of any problems along those lines except that I have heard (on the internet so the claim may be a load of rubbish) that now Edge after that update reads epubs that some claim their epub reading changed to defaulting to Edge.

This did happen to me after that update, I just went in and re-associated my epubs back to Sigil. Haven't noticed anything else weird, yet...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sami

This did happen to me after that update, I just went in and re-associated my epubs back to Sigil. Haven't noticed anything else weird, yet...

I've never had Calibre change any file type association on Windows 7 right up to Windows 10.

[theducks]

Were you doing a generic install or a Custom install?

I have been doing every (generic) update since 2011 and never had that happem

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by theducks

Were you doing a generic install or a Custom install?

I have been doing every (generic) update since 2011 and never had that happem

How do you know?

It's only a problem if you have files that have an extension that calibre register's itself as a candidate handler. If those extensions do not have an existing default handler, Windows will make calibre the default handler. As a consequence when you hit Enter on a file with such an extension it will be added to the current calibre database.

File extensions are not 'unique', e.g. one of the ebook formats uses the same extension as one of Autocad's file types - that's how I discovered the issue.

People who drive Windows from their file manager more likely to be sensitive to the issue than those who drive Windows from program launchers such as desktop shortcuts, start menus, Launchy, RocketDock et cetera.

Kovid wouldn't have added the Environment variable and the calibre-debug option if it hadn't been a problem for some users.

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

How do you know?

It's only a problem if you have files that have an extension that calibre register's itself as a candidate handler. If those extensions do not have an existing default handler, Windows will make calibre the default handler. As a consequence when you hit Enter on a file with such an extension it will be added to the current calibre database.

I disagree here. I took a look at sfuller's list of extensions that are now owned by Calibre and some of them I never had assigned to any program before installing Calibre. And none of them are assigned to Calibre now. Calibre does not take control of file extensions.

[kovidgoyal]

@BR: It's not that windows assigns a handler if there is no program already assigned for a file type. It's a little more subtle than that.

If you have Program A assigned to handle filetype F and Program B that says it can also handle filetype F, if you then happen to un-install Program A or if Program A stops claiming to handle filetype F, *then* windows automatically assigns filetype F to Program B

[Sami]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've never had Calibre change any file type association on Windows 7 right up to Windows 10.

Windows 10 Creators update, changed my epub associations to edge, not calibre, that's the first time I've ever seen a not-me initiated file association change happen.

So far I've found win10 to be a right .... to change any associations back once made, found that out with another program, requires mucking about in the registry with a hope and a wish.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I disagree here. I took a look at sfuller's list of extensions that are now owned by Calibre and some of them I never had assigned to any program before installing Calibre. And none of them are assigned to Calibre now. Calibre does not take control of file extensions.

I never said, explicitly or implicitly, that calibre.exe itself claimed default handler status. What I said was - nominating calibre.exe as a candidate handler establishes a situation whereby *Windows* will make calibre.exe the default handler. Which Kovid has elaborated on.

I have Irfanview, as the default handler for .JPG files. If I uninstalled IrfanView, Windows would probably assign something like Paint.exe as the default handler. So, when I hit Enter on a .JPG file Paint would open it, but unless I did something that directed Paint to save the .JPG, nothing would be written (apart from MRU registry values).

Having calibre.exe as the default handler (e.g. for DOCX, because I uninstalled Word) results in the .DOCX being copied to the current library, possibly creating author and book folders, or perhaps overwriting an existing .DOCX if the Add Books Automerge settings are set up to do that (I'm not a 100% sure on this).

IMO the consequences of the Irfanview/Paint scenario for .JPG files, and Word/Calibre scenario for .DOCX are substantially different.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@BR: It's not that windows assigns a handler if there is no program already assigned for a file type. It's a little more subtle than that.

If you have Program A assigned to handle filetype F and Program B that says it can also handle filetype F, if you then happe to un-install Program A or if Program A stops claiming to handle filetype F, *then* windows automatically assigns filetype F to Program B

The 'or' is something I often do, most often via nirsoft's Filetypes manager.

Given my druthers I would send Windows' default handlers to the garbage via an opt-out option. So, when I hit Enter or double clicked on a file for which there were multiple handlers a list of such would pop up - maybe in the Most Frequently Used order. Pre Vista there was a shell extension to do that, but like many such things, Vista also put the kibosh on that.

BR