XnView Software

My laptop is Win 7 Home Premium x64

I have some annoying symptoms, and i am really running out of clues on what's causing them.

I downloaded 1.99.6 Standard ver, and here's what happens:

(1) After installation, XnView doesn't open automatically. It's been a while since i last updated, so forgive my memory. Anyway, the real issue is that when you first open XnView, a window shows options such as update frequency, creating shortcuts, location for config files, etc. One of these options is "Add 'Browse with XnView' to context menu". Whichever choice i make here, this option is ALWAYS on. If i check off from Options window, navigate to System Integration, it stays on after i click Ok.

(2) File association becomes corrupted. If i remember correctly, after installation, perhaps the most common file types are pre-registered with XnView, and you don't have to set it up before its first run. Now, when i choose Restore All, which really clears all associations, comes back and haunt me by reappearing!! I messed with Windows' Default Programs to choose Windows Photo Viewer to take all associations, change it back to XnView, (which only had 9 file types on Default Programs section) but it doesn't help at all.

(3) When i uninstall XnView, the files "category.bak", "category.db", and "xnview.ini" are always left in the folder.

I have opened XnView with admin privilege, reinstalled, rebooted in every combinations, but it's not helping. And i tell you, this has not happened for my last update, v1.98

I also checked with different programs, and their file associations don't have much issues, so i'm thinking this is just XnView issue. The worst case scenario would be restoring file associations for ALL of the image extensions supported by XnView, in which i really am not looking forward to.

If it's XnView issue, please dive in and share some help for me; if it's too much of a Windows issue, i would really appreciate it if a nice Windows guru can help me out of here.

cowls192 wrote: (1) After installation, XnView doesn't open automatically. It's been a while since i last updated, so forgive my memory. Anyway, the real issue is that when you first open XnView, a window shows options such as update frequency, creating shortcuts, location for config files, etc. One of these options is "Add 'Browse with XnView' to context menu". Whichever choice i make here, this option is ALWAYS on. If i check off from Options window, navigate to System Integration, it stays on after i click Ok.

Even if you start with admin rights?

(2) File association becomes corrupted. If i remember correctly, after installation, perhaps the most common file types are pre-registered with XnView, and you don't have to set it up before its first run. Now, when i choose Restore All, which really clears all associations, comes back and haunt me by reappearing!! I messed with Windows' Default Programs to choose Windows Photo Viewer to take all associations, change it back to XnView, (which only had 9 file types on Default Programs section) but it doesn't help at all.

Is it the setup that you have used?

(3) When i uninstall XnView, the files "category.bak", "category.db", and "xnview.ini" are always left in the folder.

yes right

I have opened XnView with admin privilege, reinstalled, rebooted in every combinations, but it's not helping. And i tell you, this has not happened for my last update, v1.98

I have not changed that, so it's the same as 1.98...

Never mind. I fixed the problem by ditching XnView, install Irfanview and let it steal all the file associations, uninstall it, and got everything back with XnView. Hope this helps for other folks.

xnview wrote:

cowls192 wrote: (1) After installation, XnView doesn't open automatically. It's been a while since i last updated, so forgive my memory. Anyway, the real issue is that when you first open XnView, a window shows options such as update frequency, creating shortcuts, location for config files, etc. One of these options is "Add 'Browse with XnView' to context menu". Whichever choice i make here, this option is ALWAYS on. If i check off from Options window, navigate to System Integration, it stays on after i click Ok.

Even if you start with admin rights?

Well, i haven't tried admin privilege on the FIRST run of the program, so i will check this later. But for sure, if i run XnView blindly, "Browse with XnView to context menu" and "Add XnView for applications for USB events" stay the same. Same thing happens even if i run as admin. Before i got the file assoc. issue fixed, "Associate Slide file with XnView" was also a headache. But this Slide file association is working fine now.

xnview wrote:

cowls192 wrote: (3) When i uninstall XnView, the files "category.bak", "category.db", and "xnview.ini" are always left in the folder.

yes right

I mentioned this because i was thinking "category.db" had something to do with file associations, especially when it made backup file from time to time.

The reason behind this obsession with file association issue is that Windows kept popping warning window about "Always ask before opening this file" for any files from "other computers". Obviously, XnView bypasses this warning and opens the images straight ahead. And i didn't want to stick with Windows Photo Viewer at all. (XnView offers so much more!! )