Using sld Slide Show files under Windows XP

[PeteH2]

I am unable to start an XnView slide show by double-clicking sld files under WinXP. When I try this XnView starts but displays a message box with “Format of the file <MyFile.sld> could not be determined”.

The XnView option “Associate Slide File with XnView” is, of course, checked – that’s why XnView starts up but it always fails to recognise the file or start the slide show. The same message occurs if you try to open the sld file using XnView’s File, Open menu – I know this is invalid as the sld is not a graphic file but the fact I get exactly the same error may be a clue as to what is going wrong. Opening the sld from the Slide Show dialogue is OK. Doesn’t matter if the sld has been created on that PC or is copied from another.

HOWEVER double-clicking the same sld files under Win98SE works perfectly – the slide show starts as expected. So is there some subtle problem with XnView under WinXP?

I have created several CD-ROMs each with dozens of sld files and hundreds of their associated image files. CDs work fine under Win98, which is where they were created, and had assumed they would also work on all (?) Windows versions.

TIA
Pete

[helmut]

I am unable to start an XnView slide show by double-clicking sld files under WinXP. When I try this XnView starts but displays a message box with “Format of the file <MyFile.sld> could not be determined”. ...

Pete, thank you for your detailed description. Double-clicking on an XnView Slide show file (*.sld) should work on Windows XP, if not the file association is not set properly for some reason. There's a known problem regarding file associations (see topic "File associations on Windows XP"), but I think this will not help solving your problem.

What you could try is:
1.) Un-check the checkbox "Associate Slide File with XnView" in Options, category "Install".
2.) Then close the options dialog and exit XnView.
3.) Restart XnView and check the checkbox "Associate Slide File with XnView", again.
4.) Close options and exit XnView.

Don't know much about XnView internals, but this might clear the wrong file association and set the proper one.

Let us know here, whether this helped.