Solved Windows 11 not opening files correctly after reinstall

james73 · Dec 4, 2025

I had to reinstall Win 11 last weekend for a number of reasons.

Now when I use some older programs - example here is Animation Shop for editing gifs - Windows is opening each individual file
in a separate instance of the program (shown in the first image ) instead of opening the files in the same window (second image).

How can I stop whats happening in the first image? I cant remember having to solve this before, things just worked properly before
the reinstall.

Ghot · Dec 4, 2025

@james73

I opened these two animations by... drag and drop into the program, or with the File > Open, or by double clicking the animations...
And they always open in the same window.

I would suggest just re-installing Animation Shop.
I didn't choose a Preference that did this. It just does it with the program's default settings.

And no, I'm not gonna post the top animation in it's entirety.

james73 · Dec 4, 2025

Dragging and dropping the files into Animation Shop works ok, but double clicking does not, and double clicking is the way I open just about all files.

Reinstalling didn't work - I tried that last night.

Ghot · Dec 4, 2025

james73 said:
Dragging and dropping the files into Animation Shop works ok, but double clicking does not, and double clicking is the way I open just about all files.

Reinstalling didn't work - I tried that last night.

Did you get PSP and AS from here?

Paint Shop Pro 4.12 and 7.04 and 8.1 and 9.01

Due to popularity, powerful features and ease of use, here are: Paint Shop Pro 4.12 and 7.04 and 8.1 and 9.01 These are all free, legal and fully functional. These work flawlessly on all versions of Windows from 7 to 11. Paint Shop Pro 4.12 and if memory serves, 7.04 also work on Windows XP...

www.elevenforum.com

If so, which one did you get?
PSP 7.04 installs AS when you install PSP. <---- the one I use.
PSP 9.01 installs PSP and AS separately.

james73 · Dec 4, 2025

Thanks for the links. Funnily enough, another program I'm having this issue with is Paint Shop Pro 5, been using that for years. I can't remember where I got Animation Shop from. It's version 3.05 and it's a stand-alone installer. PSP5 came with Animation Shop 1.02 but I couldn't get that to work right from Windows 7 onwards.

Anyway, PSP5 and Animation Shop 3.05 where working fine until I reinstalled Windows at the weekend. I also reinstalled Windows 10 (the IoT LTSC version) and both programs are doing the same in that as well. There must be a setting somewhere to tweak to sort this.

Ghot · Dec 4, 2025

@james73

And here's ten points for filling out your computer specs.

Ghot · Dec 4, 2025

james73 said:
Anyway, PSP5 and Animation Shop 3.05 where working fine

I think you'll like PSP 7.04 better. ^^
See post #23 in the PSP topic to make PSP 7.04... large address aware. For PSP 7.04, you need this.

No one seems to like PSP 8.1, and I personally don't like PSP 9.01.
And PSP 4.12 is portable. You can put it on a USB stick and use it anywhere.

james73 · Dec 4, 2025

I just installed PSP9 - and it works the way it should. So then I uninstalled PSP5 and reinstalled it but it's still doing the same crap.

I was not a fan of PSP9 when I tried it before, so I'll give PSP7 a go.

Ghot · Dec 4, 2025

james73 said:
I was not a fan of PSP9 when I tried it before, so I'll give PSP7 a go.

Yeah, after PSP 7.04 they started going down hill.

james73 · Dec 4, 2025

Tried PSP7 and it's doing the same thing.

Ghot · Dec 4, 2025

james73 said:
Tried PSP7 and it's doing the same thing.

Must be a Windows setting.
I can't imagine what would cause that.

james73 · Dec 4, 2025

I think I've fixed it. You need to change values in the Registry for the affected program. Backup your registry before you try this.

In this example it's Paint Shop Pro 7, default install folder is: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\psp.exe"

Registry entry is:
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Psp.exe

In Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Psp.exe\Shell\Open\Command, change the default REG_SZ entry from:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\psp.exe" "%1"
to:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\psp.exe" /dde

In Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Psp.exe\Shell\Open, right click and create a new key called:
ddeexec

In Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Psp.exe\Shell\Open\ddeexec, double click on the default REG_SZ entry and give it the value:
[open("%1")]

Ghot · Dec 4, 2025

james73 said:
You need to change values in the Registry

I just installed it. It worked fine.
See post #23, here... Paint Shop Pro 4.12 and 7.04 and 8.1 and 9.01 to make PSP 7.04 Large Address Aware.

By itself PSP 7.04 can only see 2GB of RAM. After it's made Large Address Aware, it can see 4GB of RAM.
Comes in handy when saving large pics or animations.

james73 · Dec 4, 2025

Yes I did the LAA thing on PSP7.

PSP5 had the same issue only seeing 2GB of RAM. For a while I was using PSP2018 for larger files but it's so slow at starting up.

Ghot · Dec 4, 2025

james73 said:
Yes I did the LAA thing on PSP7.

PSP5 had the same issue. For a while I was using PSP2018 but it's so slow at starting up.

If you got it all working, mark the topic as solved (upper right).

james73 · Dec 4, 2025

Found another way to make those changes without having to go digging in the registry.

Use FileTypesMan.

Download FileTypesMan - MajorGeeks

FileTypesMan is an alternative to the 'File Types' tab in the 'Folder Options' of Windows. It displays the list of all file extensions and types registered on your computer.

www.majorgeeks.com

Morph000 · Dec 5, 2025

Check if the .exe is running in compatibility mode.
If it is then uncheck it.

Solved Windows 11 not opening files correctly after reinstall

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