Cannot right-click to open with main Calibre program

[yathribjr]

Hello everyone,

Since upgrading to Calibre 3.3, I've noticed that I no longer have the option to right-click on an .epub file and select the option to "Open with" what is called "The main calibre program" in Windows 10 64-bit. [See 1st picture.]

Usually this is not a problem since "The calibre e-book viewer" default program is what I need. However, when I need to convert an .epub for my Kindle 3, I can no longer select "The main calibre program" from "Open with" after right-clicking. Either I must add the book from the main program, or I have to constantly "Choose another app" and select "The main calibre program" since Windows 10 does not remember my choice.

I have tried using the Default Programs Editor program to add "The main calibre program" to the "Open with" selections. [See 2nd picture.] However, despite it appearing among the "Open with" selections already, it still does not appear after right-clicking back in Windows Explorer.

I also tried using CCleaner following a suggestion from elsewhere to clean the registry, but that did not work either.

Any help is most appreciated! It's not a big deal but kind of inconvenient.

[BetterRed]

@yathribjr - workaround: put a shortcut to calibre.exe in shell:sendto and use it rather than windows shell open with option. I use it to add new books - irrespective of file type.

Also see these these items in the calibre user Manual ==>> CALIBRE_NO_DEFAULT_PROGRAMS environment variable and calibre-debug --default-programs option.

BR

[yathribjr]

Thanks BR, this works like a charm!

These sorts of mysteries make Windows challenging for non-experts like me.

I hope the Calibre folks can look into whether there is something that can be done about this quirk if I'm not the only one experiencing it.

[PeterT]

I know there have been issues when a user has had 32 bit calibre installed and then migrates to 64 bit; this is NOT though a calibre issue, it's a Windows issue.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by yathribjr

Thanks BR, this works like a charm!

These sorts of mysteries make Windows challenging for non-experts like me.

I hope the Calibre folks can look into whether there is something that can be done about this quirk if I'm not the only one experiencing it.

The Windows file association mechanisms have been a rats nest ever since... and IMO the more they try to 'fix' it the worse it gets.

I had all sorts of problems when the change to register calibre.exe as a candidate handler for all 'ebook' extensions was implemented in version 2.20.

I have files with 'ebook' extensions, which are not ebooks, that have no default handler - a conscious decision on my part. So, when the calibre 2.20 install nominated calibre.exe as a candidate handler for these extensions Windows promptly made it the default handler Ψ²

Because I was already using Send To to add books I had no interest in having calibre.exe as a candidate handler for anything, let alone the default handler. So I used the calibre-debug --default-programs unregister option to remove calibre.exe from Windows Default Programs list, and I set CALIBRE_NO_DEFAULT_PROGRAMS to 1 to prevent calibre from automatically registering the filetypes it is capable of handling with Windows.

Now, if I should ever need to, I can add calibre.exe to the Open With list for a specific file extension manually - to date I've not had the need. But I just tested doing it again (Win10 Pro version 1611 64bit) and it works as expected.

The first issue is that the file extensions are totally ad-hoc. FX, Pegasus, Quicken and Visual Studio all make use of the PDB extension, but they are likely to barf on PDB files they didn't create. The second issue, IMO, is that software shouldn't add itself to Windows Default Programs without asking the user. And the third issue is what Windows does when there is no default handler for an extension and something announces - 'I can handle that'.

BR

[yathribjr]

I forgot to mention that I am now using "Windows 10 Creators Update" (v. 1703) 64 bit.

Among its new media features, it adds .epub file reading capabilities to Windows via the Microsoft Edge browser. This may be helping mess up the .epub file associations.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by yathribjr

I forgot to mention that I am now using "Windows 10 Creators Update" (v. 1703) 64 bit.

Among its new media features, it adds .epub file reading capabilities to Windows via the Microsoft Edge browser. This may be helping mess up the .epub file associations.

@yathripjr - I doubt it, but here's a link on How to ditch Microsoft Edge as your default PDF reader on Windows 10. One would hope the same techniques would work for EPUB.

If that doesn't solve your problems you could try one or all of the following:-

• running calibre-debug --default-programs unregister before you install version 3.4
• run sfc /scannow
• do an Repair Install of Windows 10

But I don't know if any one of those or even all three will solve your problems. Maybe you need to do a Windows Refresh or Windows Reset and a reinstall everything else.

Or you could do what I've done:-

• remove all traces of calibre from Windows file associations with the calibre debug command I gave you,
• set the requisite environment variable I gave you,
• explicitly create the associations you need - in my case I associate the calibre viewer and editor with ePub - period.

Calibre is by no means the only program for which I've had to do something similar over the past 20+ years.

BR

[yathribjr]

Thanks again; it's just something I thought of just in case it added useful information. My minor bug was already addressed with the "Send to" workaround.

[kcaj1]

Any ideas about why 'PATH: click to open' in not working with Calibre V 3.2.1 with my macbook pro os x yosemite V 10.10.4 ??