[issue46594] Windows "Edit with IDLE >" only has one selection

[Eryk Sun]

Eryk Sun <eryksun at gmail.com> added the comment:

Check your settings in the registry.

In "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts" there should be a ".py" key, but not necessarily. It should have an "OpenWithList" subkey that contains an "MRUList" value (most recently used list). The value should be a sequence of letters, each of which should be a value name in the key. If the launcher was last used to open a ".py" file, the first letter in the list should be a value with the data "py.exe".

Ideally there should also be a subkey named "UserChoice" that contains a "ProgId" (programmatic identifier) value with the data "Python.File". This sets the "Python.File" ProgID as the locked-in user choice for ".py" files. In the GUI, you can set this in the open-with dialog by selecting "always use this app to open .py files". The selected app should be "Python", with an icon that contains the Python logo and a rocket (the launcher).

If ".py" isn't the locked-in user choice, the shell API will use the most recent user selection in the open-with menu. If there's no user selection, the default association is calculated from "HKCR\.py", which is a merged view of "[HKCU|HKLM]\Software\Classes\.py". The default value of "HKCR\.py" sets the default file association. Ideally it should be "Python.File".

"HKCR\Python.File" is a merged view of "[HKCU|HKLM]\Software\Classes\Python.File". For the merged view, if a value name is defined in the same subkey of HKCU and HKLM, the view prefers the HKCU value. There should be a subkey named "shell\editwithidle\shell". It should define one or more subkeys named "edit3*", such as "edit310". Each should contain a "MUIVerb" value that sets the command description in the "open-with" menu. There should also be a "command" subkey that contains the template command as its default value, e.g. ""C:\Program Files\Python310\pythonw.exe" -m idlelib "%L" %*".

----------
nosy: +eryksun

_______________________________________
Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue46594>
_______________________________________