Solved How Do I...

suparoo · Nov 21, 2023

I would like to add another program to my: Windows Explorer>(chosen file)>Right Click>Open With.
I want to add the program instead of having to select the "choose another App" menu at the very bottom.

Edwin · Nov 22, 2023

suparoo said:
... instead of having to select the "choose another App" menu at the very bottom.

You only have to do that once. Once you choose a program, it will be added to the list.

suparoo · Nov 22, 2023

Sadly it doesn't work that way on my Win 11.

Edwin · Nov 22, 2023

suparoo said:
Sadly it doesn't work that way on my Win 11.

That's odd! It does for me!

Kees · Nov 23, 2023

Edwin said:
You only have to do that once. Once you choose a program, it will be added to the list.

That's not always true!
Some (older) programs are not added (anymore) to the 'open with' list.
I have this problem with the freeware program 'PhotoME', with which you can look at EXIF specs of a .jpg file.
Right clicking on a .jpg file and selecting 'open with' brings not that program. Selecting 'choose another app' brings the program, but next time you do that, Windows has forgotten the program, so you'll have to do the same procedure again and after that again.

I know there are other programs to examine the EXIF data, but PhotoME is (for me) a nice handy app. I don't use it very often so I accept that I'll have to make a detour when I want to use it. But it's just an example that apps don't appear in the 'open with' menu, where it did in Windows 10.

Bree · Nov 23, 2023

Kees said:
Some (older) programs are not added (anymore) to the 'open with' list.
I have this problem with the freeware program 'PhotoME', with which you can look at EXIF specs of a .jpg file.
Right clicking on a .jpg file and selecting 'open with' brings not that program. Selecting 'choose another app' brings the program, but next time you do that, Windows has forgotten the program....

Well, Open with... 'Just once' seemed to work OK for me.....

Kees · Nov 24, 2023

In that case there must be something in my system that's causing the 'problem'. Have no idea what, will see some time.

In past ten years I was a moderator in a (technical) forum where many pictures were posted and needed (some) editing, in that time I have used the program often. Editing was neccessary already only for the fact that people post their images, without realising much personal data is included, often GPS was on when taking the picture, so that one could easily find out what equipment was situated where.

Since I gave up moderatorship there, I don't use it very often anymore. And I thought it was the age of the program that was the reason it did not appear in the open with list (the problem was there from day one I installed it on a brandnew system). Which appears not to be so, thanks for the testing.

Kees · Nov 24, 2023

Just found out what caused the little problem of PhotoMe not appearing in the 'Open With' context menu.

The reason is that I disabled modern context menu, as described here:

Disable "Show more options" context menu in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable having to click on "Show more options" to see the full context menu for your account or all users in Windows 11. When you right click on an item in Windows 11, you will see a new modern condensed context menu with Show more options...

www.elevenforum.com

I used the registry file method to "disable show more options":
(start registry file)
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32]
@=""
(end registry file)

If I enable that again (+ logoff/logon). that program will indeed be directly viewable in the 'Open With' context menu.
And if I disable it again after that, the PhotoME is not anymore viewable in the context menu 'Open With'.

For me, it's much more important to have the classic context menu than the direct open with for a program that I seldomly use.

But maybe it helps @suparoo, because as far as I can see in his screenshot, he did disable "show more options" as well!
He could download both registry files in order to test if the enabling of "show more options" will solve his problem (and thus create another problem of the modern context menu).

Hopefully there is another method for enabling the classic context menu, but that's something I would not like to search for now.

Bree · Nov 24, 2023

Kees said:
Just found out what caused the little problem of PhotoMe not appearing in the 'Open With' context menu.

The reason is that I disabled modern context menu

Kees said:
For me, it's much more important to have the classic context menu than the direct open with for a program that I seldomly use.

In that case, see if you can add PhotoMe to your Send to menu.

Add or Remove Items in Send to Context Menu in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove items in the Send to context menu in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The Send to context menu allows you to quickly send a copy of items (ex: files, folders, libraries) to Bluetooth device, Compressed (zipped) folder, Desktop (create shortcut)...

www.elevenforum.com

suparoo · Nov 24, 2023

Thank you for sorting that out for me Kees.

Kees · Nov 24, 2023

suparoo said:
Thank you for sorting that out for me Kees.

Does it indeed (in your system) function if you enable modern context menu?
You could do that just for the test.

Bree said:
In that case, see if you can add PhotoMe to your Send to menu.

Thanks for the hint. Does indeed function!

Kees · Nov 24, 2023

Found a better solution. Found it here:

Strange open with list (inconsistent with registry)

Look at my open with list: And look at my settings for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\OpenWithList in the registry: I don't get why my open wit...

superuser.com

It seems the problem is caused by incomplete data in the executable file, by means of which for each app there should be an entry for the MuiCache for the 'FriendlyAppName' and for the 'ApplicationCompany'. The FriendlyAppName of PhotoME was there: "photome.exe" (I changed that to just "PhotoME"). The ApplicationCompany was missing and therefor I made an extra stringvalue saying "Jens Duttke" (the developer of the program).

So in total my registry file is this:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache]
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\PhotoME\\photome.exe.FriendlyAppName"="PhotoME"
"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\PhotoME\\photome.exe.ApplicationCompany"="Jens Duttke"

See the attached registry file, which I stored with the installation file of PhotoME, because it is told in the linked topic that Windows updates tend to undo changes to the MuiCache.

I will try to find such a solution for the program that @suparoo has problems with (imageGlass Moon)
To begin with that I searched for that program and found this site:

ImageGlass - A lightweight, versatile image viewer

ImageGlass is a feature-rich, simple-to-use app seamlessly integrated with a clean, minimal and modern user interface, works with all image formats.

imageglass.org

I noted that there are many versions, some very young.
@suparoo Did you try to install a newer version?
If you did not, please try if a newer version brings a solution.
Or please specify your version, so that I can install that and see if I can make a registry file for that.

Edit: on my testsystem, that has classic context menus as well, I installed the last version (9.0.7.1125) of Image Glass.
And in that version I can see no problems with 'Open With' in the context menu.

suparoo · Nov 25, 2023

Kees said:
Found a better solution. Found it here:

Strange open with list (inconsistent with registry)

Look at my open with list: And look at my settings for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\OpenWithList in the registry: I don't get why my open wit...

superuser.com

It seems the problem is caused by incomplete data in the executable file, by means of which for each app there should be an entry for the MuiCache for the 'FriendlyAppName' and for the 'ApplicationCompany'. The FriendlyAppName of PhotoME was there: "photome.exe" (I changed that to just "PhotoME"). The ApplicationCompany was missing and therefor I made an extra stringvalue saying "Jens Duttke" (the developer of the program).

So in total my registry file is this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\MuiCache] "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\PhotoME\\photome.exe.FriendlyAppName"="PhotoME" "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\PhotoME\\photome.exe.ApplicationCompany"="Jens Duttke"
See the attached registry file, which I stored with the installation file of PhotoME, because it is told in the linked topic that Windows updates tend to undo changes to the MuiCache.

I will try to find such a solution for the program that @suparoo has problems with (imageGlass Moon)
To begin with that I searched for that program and found this site:

ImageGlass - A lightweight, versatile image viewer

ImageGlass is a feature-rich, simple-to-use app seamlessly integrated with a clean, minimal and modern user interface, works with all image formats.

imageglass.org

I noted that there are many versions, some very young.
@suparoo Did you try to install a newer version?
If you did not, please try if a newer version brings a solution.
Or please specify your version, so that I can install that and see if I can make a registry file for that.

Edit: on my testsystem, that has classic context menus as well, I installed the last version (9.0.7.1125) of Image Glass.
And in that version I can see no problems with 'Open With' in the context menu.

G'day Kees,

I don't have ImageGlass Moon installed on my PC, that was Edwin showing me how to solve to my problem.
As you noted, I had edited the registry to disable the new context menu, which I have now re-enabled.

I was trying to get "Inpaint" to show in my OpenWith menu.