[PM] Installer steals file associations with no warning (for a few users)

[msssk]

On Windows 7 the Brackets installer over-writes file associations. It should allow you to specify whether or not you want it to do this.

[peterflynn]

@msssk That shouldn't happen. Which file extensions? What app were they assigned to before?

[peterflynn]

Tentatively assigning @bchintx to do follow-up investigation once we have more info.

[aniforprez]

In my case it overwrote the file associations of MD, Lua, JSON, .properties files.

They were previously assigned to other text editors. MD, Lua and JSON where assigned to Sublime Text whereas .properties was assigned to Notepad.

[msssk]

I haven't investigated exhaustively, but my .js file association was changed as well as .sh.

[njx]

We got a report of this on Twitter as well.

[peterflynn]

High priority to investigate for Sprint 35.

[peterflynn]

Adjusting title (was: "Installer does not prompt to set file associations")

[peterflynn]

@msssk You've installed earlier versions of Brackets too, right? Did this just start happening with the Sprint 34 build?

We did have some installer changes in Sprint 34, but I'm having a really hard time seeing how the diff (https://github.com/adobe/brackets-shell/compare/sprint-33...sprint-34?w=1#diff-13) could in any way be causing this. We previously registered only for the Open With list, and we still register only for the Open With list... If that didn't cause bugs before I'm failing to see how it could now. @bchintx any ideas?

[peterflynn]

Is it possible there's some other common app that uses the registry key SOFTWARE\Brackets and we're colliding with it? It's certainly a less unique reg key than we used to use...

[Krindi]

I just installed Brackets for the first time yesterday, Sprint 34, and did not have any file extensions changed without warning. This is on Windows 8.1, which just gives a prompt about having new programs that can open this file. May be a Windows 7 specific issue.

[peterflynn]

@Krindi Yeah, this is definitely not the typical install experience for most users. I'll clarify the title.

[msssk]

@peterflynn I think the last time I installed it was Sprint 24.

[bchintx]

@msssk @aniforprez The Brackets installer on Windows should only add Brackets as an available program in the "Open With..." context menu, when rt-clicking on a supported file type in Windows Explorer. We don't remove anyone else from the list and we shouldn't automatically take over any default associations.

So, perhaps I'm just misunderstanding what you're seeing. Can you please clarify with some detailed steps to describe the issue?

For example, after installing Brackets, I would expect the following to occur on Windows:

1. launch Windows Explorer and browse to a file of a supported file type, such as .js.
2. select and right-click the .js file and mouse-over the "Open With..." context menu item.

At this point, I would expect that you would see a list of programs, including "Brackets", above the last menu item of "Choose default program...". Of course, clicking "Brackets" would then launch Brackets and open the selected file. This is correct behavior.

Are you seeing something different? Or, perhaps, is your concern that the above behavior occurs at all -- ie. that the Brackets installer should have prompted you on install that it was going to add itself to the Open With... list?
@Krindi I think this is what you're referring to?

[aniforprez]

No, it took over completely as the default application for some file types. As in, if I double-click it, it opens in Brackets automatically for those file types and shows the Brackets icon for files of those few types. The files had been previously assigned as defaults to other text editing software.

This is slightly irritating, especially because it opens file types that have nothing to do with Brackets' intended functionality. For eg. .properties files.