problem opening multiple files from Windows Explor

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I have had this problem before, but can’t remember the fix – I think it had something to do with the presence of Gemini, the Acrobat plug-in.

The problem: can’t open a list of highlighed files (Word docs, PDFs, etc). I have to open them one at a time.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Rob

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What happens when you try to open multiple files?
What operating system?

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Hi Leif,

Thanks for responding. When I try to open multiple files from Windows Explorer, none of them will open, and I have to open them one at a time by just clicking on the file name.

I use XP Home, and I just tried opening multiple files on another computer with XP Home, and they opened fine. I seem to remember that I had this before and it had something to do with the presence of Gemini on my computer (or perhaps some other application), but I can’t remember what I did to resolve it. I reformatted my computer a month ago and reinstalled Gemini last week. Last time I read of a fix and I thought it was in this forum, but now I can’t find anthing on the problem.

Thanks very much for your help.

Rob

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I didn’t know that there might be a fix. I run Win XP Pro and can’t do it either. Just to make sure I remember correctly, I just tried two or three TXT and then JPG files and only one opens. As a matter of fact, depending on whther you do the action with keyboard or mouse, a different file in the selection seems to open. Back to Leif’s question of what OS are you using and might it be some recollection from Win98 or whatever…

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Hi Al,

Interesting. In my case, not even one opens when highlight several and right-click on Open. Your work-around in your other message make sense – thanks for the suggestions. But it is supposed to work, and something keeps it from working. Do you have Gemini loaded under Acrobat (I am still on 5.0) by any chance?

Regards,
Rob

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I have Acrobat Reader 5.1 (still!) with no extensions, plugins or whatever, so that can’t be the solution for me. I also have an XP Pro machine with only SP1 and another with SP2 fully patched but both have nothing other than Windows installed so I have no third-party apps I can check with. On the clean SP2 machine, I tried right-clicking on three highlighted TXT files, knowing that Notepad will only open one file, just to see what happens. Well, it opened three instances of Notepad, so I don’t know where the I am on this. I’ll keep poking around.

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Thanks for your help, Al. For sure it is a Windows thing, since within Office applications I can open multiple files without any problem.

I am not much of an expert, by Windows Explorer is somehow linked to Internet Explorer, so perhaps it is a setting in IE that needs to be tweaked.

Thanks again for your help,
Rob

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Da Plot Thickens, Rob! Until I just read your post, I hadn’t tried selecting multiple files in Explorer for WORD or some other MS app since I normally do that from within the application. So, I just did that and Word opened multiple instances for the three docs I selected in Windows Explorer. But, that’s the same thing that happens if you select multiple files from within Word using the File Open screen, so it’s inconclusive.

Here’s something I did. This morning when I tested, I tried selecting multiple TXT files in Windows Explorer and right-clicking to get to Open. It didn’t work! I have long ago set my file associations for TXT (and others) for NoteTab Light Text Editor as my replacement for Notepad. The version I’m running (4.85) is quite old, so I decided to download a fresh copy (4.95) and install it on my “clean” XP Pro SP2 machine and guess what. The thing will now allow me to right-click select several files and it opens ’em up just fine, where 4.85 would NOT do that on THIS machine this morning!

So I installed 4.95 on THIS (my “production” machine) and it now works here also. I realize I’m not helping a bit here, only complicating the unexplainable! BTW, my earlier test on this machine with JPGs uses the newest version of Paint Shop Pro 10, so I don’t know where we are on this one. I can only hope that another Lounger will jump in here with a clue, but for sure I don’t think that it’s something “broken” by SP2 and probably has nothing to do with Acrobat.

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Thanks again, Al. Yes, it seems be strictly a Windows (Explorer) thing. I just tried opening three (highlighted) PDFs by right clicking on Open, and nothing opened in Acrobat. When I double-clicked on one of the PDFs, it opened in Acrobat just fine.

Regards,
Rob

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See if this newsgroup thread helps. The proposed solution involves editing the registry, so be careful.
Please heed the suggestion to export the registry keys before deleting them; that enables you to restore them if it doesn’t work the way you want.

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Hi Hans,

Thanks for the link. I see that the registry keys that end in ContextMenuHandlers have other items under them in the tree structure, mostly referring to third party applications, is it safe to remove those keys and still have those applications function? I have never done an export through regedit. Does that mean those keys sit somewhere and can be Imported back into their locations anytime? I suppose that Export does not remove them and they still have to be erased at the top level (with their subdirectories) in regedit?

What really seems strange is that my laptop (same configuration as the desktop) does open multiple files from Windows Explorer. This is very curious. Any possible explanation?

Thanks very much for your help.

Regards,
Rob

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Rob,

I don’t know why your PC doesn’t open multiple files from Windows Explorer. Something must be wrong in the registry, or possibly in one of the Windows DLLs, but I don’t know what. The newsgroup post I referred to seemed the most promising in a Google search.

Exporting a registry key to a .reg file does not remove the key. It is a way to make a backup. You can restore the original situation by opening the exported .reg file from Windows Explorer. Deleting the keys is a separate action.

Deleting the ContextMenuHandlers keys will remove the options in the right-click menu that have been put there by several applications, but they will either be restored automatically when you run the applications, or there is an option in those programs to add them again. And, as said, you can restore the old situation by opening the exported .reg files.

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Hans,

Thanks for the clear explanations and advice. I will do this a bit later, as I am cranking out a job right now.

The only reluctance I am having is that I resolved this once before and found a simple answer in Google at that time. The solution was to erase a certain application, but I have forgtten which one.

I have printed your instructions, and will take care of this when things settle down.

Thanks very much,
Rob

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Guys,

Thanks for posting this newsgroup link. We encountered the same problem, except that nothing happens when trying to open multiple documents with ANY program. After some testing with these registry keys, we traced it down to entries made by the Veritas NetBackup Professional program. Not sure if the problem is with the program’s install or the way my company automated it, but deleting just the keys created by this program fixed the problem. I have several co-workers here who use this multi-open feature quite a bit, and they were driving me nuts about it on their new systems.

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Al, just as a side note: in all probability, Word does not start three separate instances if you open three documents. You can check this in the Processes tab of the Task Manager – you’ll probably see only one instance of Winword.exe.
Starting with Word 2000, its default behavior is to mimic a single document interface application such as Notepad, but underneath it opens documents in a single instance. In Word 2002 and up, you can go back to the Word 97 behavior by clearing the check box “Show documents in task bar” in the View tab of Tools | Options…

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I forgot to say this (need my second cup of coffee) and didn’t want to edit my post in case you depend on Lounge notifications. The reason I had forgotten about the “problem” is that when I need to open multiple files, I either do it from inside the application in question OR – what DOES work – is to be running Windows Explorer at less than full screen and right-drag the list of files from Explorer to an application shortcut icon on the desktop. That works for me and I do it most frequently with either TXT, JPG or HTML files.

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