3. find the entry
.PDE and use the button "
change program" to set it to the processing executable. Since processing doesn't have an installer, it won't show up in the programs list and you'll need to browse for its EXE file.
I can't remember if that worked right-out-of-the-box or if I needed to try to open a PDE file before, to make the
.PDE entry appear in that control panel. Anyway, this is the default method for setting up file type associations and is what windows does for you with that "
Open with" dialog. I know this doesn't solve your problem, I wrote it only to leave it written somewhere, as it is related and people might get here searching for that.
Now the "fun" part. When 1.5 came out, I extracted the zip to a folder different from where 1.2.1 was, to keep both versions. Whenever I tried to reassociate the file type, no matter how many times I selected the EXE inside 1.5's folder, it kept working with the 1.2.1's. So I renamed the 1.2.1's folder to see what happened, and as I expected, PDE got associated to "
unknown program" or something like that, and no matter how many times I went to 1.5's folder and selected it, it remained not associated. I didn't try with 1.2.1's, but, anyway, this seems to be much like your problem. I found the solution here:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/problems-with-file-association-in-windows-7-64-bit/8a84fcec-22df-4942-8e35-d98dbe96e327
The problem is that windows 7 only allows associations with programs that
it has registered. When there is an installer, this happens and therefore everything is OK to make the associations. When I made that first association, windows registered the 1.2.1 EXE automatically and everything seemed to be OK. In the other hand, when I tried to re-associate with 1.5, it simply did not update that registry entry and kept working with the old, perhaps because both EXEs had the same name and windows is dumb. Also, and this is important, installers that fail to remove the registry keys responsible for that stuff are certain to mess up file associations just like that if you install a new version or just uninstall it.
So here's how to update that:
1. run
regedit (type it in a
CMD window or in the windows' run dialog or at the start-menu "
search programs and files" field)
2. find the key
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications
3. the registry key that registers a program with windows is a key with the EXE's name (or DLL's, etc) under the key you have just found in step 2. In our case, "
processing.exe" (obviously without the quotes and all lower case). That key shall have the following structure:
processing.exe ->
shell ->
open ->
command
where "a -> b" indicates that key a contains key b. All of those keys have empty
(Default) entries. For example, in "
processing.exe", you will find a little folder icon named "
shell" in the left pane of
regedit and a
(Default) entry in the right one, of type
REG_SZ and data "
(value not set)".
The important entry is the
(Default) entry of that most-inner key, the "
command" key.
4. navigate to the "
command" key (as stated in the structure above) and change its data value to the correct location of your processing EXE followed by
"%1", i.e. right click the entry, choose "
modify..." and type the location (or paste it). In my case, the correct entry data is:
"D:\software\processing-1.5\processing.exe" "%1"
This time including the quotes hehehe...
D:\software\processing-1.5 is the installation folder for version 1.5 on my system. One needs to customize that to his/her own system's settings.
5. after that procedure, I was able to associate PDE files with processing using the regular approach (the first one). If that
processing.exe key with that structure is not present in there, it may be a good try to back-up your registry and create that structure, which I can't guarantee to work since I don't know if there are some more keys created by windows when it registered my 1.2.1 version for the very first time.
This must relate to the fact that the check-box to associate PDE with processing under
file->
preferences in processing doesn't work in windows 7. I hate installers that don't let me choose installation folder and that won't remove all the registry crap once you try to remove the software, so I thank processing for being distributed in a well-behaved little zip. BUT perhaps a registry file to add/update those settings could be added in the zip? With a nice little readme.txt, so users know exactly what has been added to the system in case they need to remove the software or relocate it?
Sorry for the crappy English...
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Johnny-boy Floyd sends his regards
