Using editor stand-alone on Windows 10

[Phssthpok]

On my Windows 10 system, I have associated EPUB files with the Calibre viewer. However, sometimes I want to use the editor to look inside an EPUB, so I right-click on the file and go to the "open with" menu, and thence to "choose another app" and "more apps" and. I find "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-edit.exe" "%1", select it and click OK, and it just takes me back to the "choose another app" menu. If I scroll to the bottom, choose "Look for another app on the PC" and locate ebook-edit-exe, it opens the file in the editor as expected.

I know this is a Windows question rather than a Calibre one, but still: can anyone advise me on what to do so that I can easily open EPUBs in the editor if I want to?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

On my Windows 10 system, I have associated EPUB files with the Calibre viewer. However, sometimes I want to use the editor to look inside an EPUB, so I right-click on the file and go to the "open with" menu, and thence to "choose another app" and "more apps" and. I find "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-edit.exe" "%1", select it and click OK, and it just takes me back to the "choose another app" menu. If I scroll to the bottom, choose "Look for another app on the PC" and locate ebook-edit-exe, it opens the file in the editor as expected.

I know this is a Windows question rather than a Calibre one, but still: can anyone advise me on what to do so that I can easily open EPUBs in the editor if I want to?

Something is broken on your system, because that exact scenario gets used almost daily W10 pro x64

[JSWolf]

How did you get the "%1" in there? Mine doesn't have that. It just shows...

the calibre e-book editor

Here's what to try. Select the ePub, right click, open with, choose another app, more apps, look for another app on this pc

Now navigate to where the editor lives and select it and go. It might then add the editor to the list for the next time.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How did you get the "%1" in there? Mine doesn't have that. It just shows...

the calibre e-book editor

Here's what to try. Select the ePub, right click, open with, choose another app, more apps, look for another app on this pc

Now navigate to where the editor lives and select it and go. It might then add the editor to the list for the next time.

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

On my Windows 10 system, I have associated EPUB files with the Calibre viewer. However, sometimes I want to use the editor to look inside an EPUB, so I right-click on the file and go to the "open with" menu, and thence to "choose another app" and "more apps" and. I find "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-edit.exe" "%1", select it and click OK, and it just takes me back to the "choose another app" menu. If I scroll to the bottom, choose "Look for another app on the PC" and locate ebook-edit-exe, it opens the file in the editor as expected.

I know this is a Windows question rather than a Calibre one, but still: can anyone advise me on what to do so that I can easily open EPUBs in the editor if I want to?

I'm using Windows 10 Pro, 64bit version 1703

Like Jon, I never see any paths as quoted strings, what you have looks like it comes from a registry value a'la - "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\????\shell\open\command"

I see a standard Windows select file dialogue, the default starting location is always C:\Program Files, from there I navigate to wherever and select an .exe - e.g:



That said, Windows (W10 even more so) and file associations are 'problematic'. I recently read, it's because MS try to maintain backwards compatibility with OLE/DDE and all that.

All I can suggest is a light weight registry clean (Piroform CCleaner is my choice), and sfc /scannow, failing that reinstall Windows.

BR

[JSWolf]

When I was running the beta of Calibre 3, I managed to end up with multiple Calibre editor and viewer in open with more apps. I went into the registry and remove all traces of the editor and the viewer. Then I did a repair install using the Calibre installer. That fixed the entries I took out that should have stayed.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How did you get the "%1" in there? Mine doesn't have that. It just shows...

the calibre e-book editor

Here's what to try. Select the ePub, right click, open with, choose another app, more apps, look for another app on this pc

Now navigate to where the editor lives and select it and go. It might then add the editor to the list for the next time.

That's exactly what I did, and it ended up on the list as the pathname complete with the "%1". (But, one other thing -- I'm using the 32-bit calibre because there was a problematic interaction with SpiderOak, so it's actually in the "Program Files (x86)" directory.)

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Like Jon, I never see any paths as quoted strings, what you have looks like it comes from a registry value a'la - "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\????\shell\open\command"

OK, thanks, I'll try giving the registry a quick wash & rinse.

[Phssthpok]

Aha, I think I found the problem. IIRC, the 64-bit Calibre had a problem saving files ("Save files to disc" in the library manager), which was apparently a known issue when also using SpiderOak, so I uninstalled and installed the 32-bit version, which I've been using ever since. But the registry was full of calibre64XXX keys which hadn't been removed by the uninstaller, so I deleted those (well, the ones I noticed, anyway; there were lots of them...) and all is now well.

Thanks everyone!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

Aha, I think I found the problem. IIRC, the 64-bit Calibre had a problem saving files ("Save files to disc" in the library manager), which was apparently a known issue when also using SpiderOak, so I uninstalled and installed the 32-bit version, which I've been using ever since. But the registry was full of calibre64XXX keys which hadn't been removed by the uninstaller, so I deleted those (well, the ones I noticed, anyway; there were lots of them...) and all is now well.

Thanks everyone!

You can dump SpiderOak since it's poorly written.

https://tresorit.com/business/spideroak-alternative

[BetterRed]

That SpiderOak 'thing' is a nuisance - its been identified as the cause of problems with many things, calibre included

See Calibre FAQ - ==>> calibre occasionally freezes/crashes (and otherwise misbehaves)?

If the crashes happen specifically when you are using a file dialog, like clicking on the Add books button or the Save to Disk button, then you have some software that has installed broken Shell extensions on your computer. Known culprits include: SpiderOak, odrive sync ...

If you want to keep your registry tidy I suggest a periodic wash and brush-up with Piriform's CCleaner (formerly known as Crap Cleaner)

BR

[JSWolf]

Calibre follows the rules. SpiderOak does not. In that case, SpiderOak has to go.

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Calibre follows the rules. SpiderOak does not. In that case, SpiderOak has to go.

OK, accepted. But the fact that all the calibre64 crap was left in the registry after the uninstall seem to indicate that there is a problem with Calibre uninstallation, too. And if I take out SpiderOak and then switch back to calibre64, will I end up with unpurged crap in the registry from calibre32 which will cause the same sort of problems all over again?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Phssthpok

OK, accepted. But the fact that all the calibre64 crap was left in the registry after the uninstall seem to indicate that there is a problem with Calibre uninstallation, too. And if I take out SpiderOak and then switch back to calibre64, will I end up with unpurged crap in the registry from calibre32 which will cause the same sort of problems all over again?

All what crap - name the specific registry keys. Looking in my registry, I find the following keys, which are created by the Microsoft Trusted Installer

At HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\calibre 64bit I have: desktop_shortcut_installed, start_menu_shortcuts_installed, and system_path_updated, each with a value of 1.

At HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\calibre 64bit\Installer where I have InstallPath with a value of C:\Program Files\Calibre2\

At HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\App Paths\ I have keys for calibre.exe, calibre-complete.exe . . . and ebook-viewer.exe each of which has a (Default) of the executable name e.g. calibre.exe, and a Path which has a value of C:\Program Files\Calibre2\

The only other calibre entries are those I created for the epub file type which has ebook_viewer.exe and ebook_editor.exe in its Open With list.

If you don't want the Windows Trusted Installer to create calibre related registry 'crap' don't install calibre, use the Portable version instead.

Calibre has approximately 2.5 million active Windows users (see Usage Statistics), and you're the only one we know of with this problem. This SpiderOak related post maybe of interest ==>> https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...0&postcount=36

BR

[JSWolf]

Obviously, SpiderOak is a very poorly written program. Why do you still want to use it knowing that it's poorly written and causes problems?

[Phssthpok]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

All what crap - name the specific registry keys.

I had 74 different calibre64.AssocFile, calibre64Editor.AssocFile and calibre64Viewer.AssocFile entries under HKCU\Software\Classes. It was cleaning these out that fixed my problem, but I would have expected them to be removed automatically when I uninstalled Calibre64. I now only have the same number of calibre.AssocFile, calibreEditor.AssocFile and calibreViewer.AssocFile entries, but I now have no confidence that they will be removed if I uninstall Calibre32 to go back to Calibre64.