Okay, now this is annoying

[annathepiper]

So here's the sitch--the desktop support chick set up my work machine with WS_FTP Pro on it. All well and good, though I don't use the program and don't really have any need for it. But the thing is, its release notes file has been somehow mapped onto Notepad, such that if I go to Start/Run and type in notepad to launch it, and then come back later to the list of recently launched programs on said Start Menu, I see an icon off to that release notes file rather than, like, y'know, NOTEPAD.

I can circumvent this problem by launching Notepad off the Programs/Accessories menu, apparently. Which is fine. Except now I have an intellectual principle at stake here and I want to know what the hell was done to create this problem.

Here's what I've done:
1) Searched the registry for occurrences of whatsnew.txt to see if it got glommed into any notepad settings so far--no dice
2) Searched for .ini files containing whatsnew.txt--no dice
3) Tried to clear out my temporary files on the system on the theory that maybe something in one of those directories got munged--nada
4) Rebooted--nothing
5) Searched for all files with "notepad" in the name and verified on notepad.exe as well as various shortcuts pointing to it that the properties look right
6) Various combinations of keywords on Google--coming up dry so far
7) Gone to the site for WS_FTP and tried to search its knowledge base--nothing
8) Tried to search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for articles pertaining to Notepad--nothing

Anybody got any clever ideas?

Comments

[annathepiper]

HrMRmRmRMMRmm.

I observe that if I open up another random .txt file, not just Notepad by itself, I can repro this behavior. Interesting. I had thought of looking at file type assocations and had skimmed down the list, but perhaps I didn't look deeply enough.

*peers at File Type assocations for .txt files* Those look okay. Nothing obviously connected with WS_FTP there.

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

Find the release notes for WS_FTP Pro in it's install directory. Right-click it, go to properties, and try resetting it there.

Or ignore notepad altogether and download/install/use Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) which is pretty nifty in its own right. You should even be able to map its install directory onto the path so that you can launch it from start>run

[annathepiper]

Eh, the release notes file is just a .txt file--it's got the same settings on it that any other .txt file will, i.e., it is set to open with Notepad. I'm pretty sure that isn't the place to look for the problem. I also tried, for what it's worth, renaming that file to something else. That didn't help either.

As for Notepad++, heh, I'll keep that in mind. Don't know if I really need that, though. Since I do have a workaround for the problem I described, at this point it's mostly just intellectual curiosity about wanting to know what the heck WS_FTP did to remap the Notepad shortcut, so I can fix the problem. :)

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

Check the properties of notepad, then, and see if somehow its default action didn't get clobbered to include the path for the release notes

[annathepiper]

Notepad itself was fine, but you were on the right track here, it turns out--ravyngyngvar below suggested that I check the properties on the shortcut to the release notes file. Turns out it was trying to load something to the effect of "notepad.exe whatsnew.txt", so it was confusing the hell out of Windows. Changing it to "whatsnew.txt" by itself and letting Windows do its thing with file associations seems to have fixed the problem. Yay!

[kokyu.livejournal.com]

Weird.

Which version of Windows?

Did you try just flushing your recently used files list?

[annathepiper]

XP SP2, and no, but the icon for the Release Notes file isn't showing up there anyway.

[ceallaighgirl.livejournal.com]

You should check your computer for the Windows virus. If at startup, your computer says "Microsoft Windows", then your computer definitely has it. It usually looks like this (http://www.theeldergeek.com/images/XP%20Pro%20Setup%20Graphic/OO.gif)

:-P

That is really weird though.

[annathepiper]

*smirk* This, however, is not Windows' fault; I would lay the blame for this squarely upon WS_FTP Pro. Which, I might add, is not a Microsoft program.

And yes, it's very weird. And annoying!

[ceallaighgirl.livejournal.com]

Are you able to just remove the whole programme if you don't use it anyway?

[annathepiper]

Oh, that has occurred to me. I could easily uninstall it. But part of me doesn't want to, just in case something comes up that might require me to need it. I don't mind it sitting there on the system. And I do have a workaround for the problem I posted about. At this point it's more of a matter of the intellectual principle of wanting to figure out what the heck it did to Notepad. :)

[ceallaighgirl.livejournal.com]

So is it just an FTP server? You could uninstall it and install a different one instead, maybe.

[annathepiper]

ravyngyngvar found the problem. It has nothing to do with the program itself--it has to do with the shortcut that had been created to invoke the release notes file. For whatever reason, it had been pointing at something to the effect of "notepad.exe whatsnew.txt", therefore confusing the hell out of Windows every time I tried to load Notepad by itself.

Changing the shortcut to just load whatsnew.txt, which is what it should have been doing to begin with, has fixed the problem. Woot!

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

What happens if you try to re-assign the icon when you go into the Notepad properties?

[annathepiper]

Which icon? The icon on the release notes file?

[ravyngyngvar.livejournal.com]

Check the shortcut to the release notes file under WS_FTP in the Start menu. It could be that it is set as a shortcut to Notepad with the release notes file as a parameter, rather than a shortcut directly to the release notes file. In that case, you could try to change it, or delete it outright.

[annathepiper]

I did check the shortcut that gets generated, and yeah, it's launching via notepad followed by the filename. HrMRmRmm. I wonder if that's actually what's doing it--I'll have to check on Monday when I get to work. Though that confuses me--I'm not sure why that would actually cause the release notes file shortcut to show up every time Notepad is invoked in general. Weird!

Thanks for chiming in. :)

[ravyngyngvar.livejournal.com]

I think that if there is more than one shortcut to the same program in the Start menu, it is a little random exactly which one is stuffed into the recent program list. So if the shortcut in the WS_FTP menu looks like a shortcut directly to Notepad, Windows might pick that one rather than the one under the Accessories menu.

WS_FTP is an ancient program anyway. I remember it as my FTP client of choice under Windows 3.x. Note the name with all uppercase letters, an underscore in place of a space, and less than 8 characters in total. I wonder if it has been upgraded much for more recent Windows versions.

And you're welcome. :)

[annathepiper]

Holy crap, I think you found the problem. :) Go you! I got the Release Notes icon to come up again on the Start Menu and checked it, and indeed, it was trying to invoke notepad and then the actual file, as I mentioned above. I changed that so that it loaded only the file in question, and that does indeed seem to have fixed the issue.

And yeah, I know the program's been around for ages and ages--heck, I've never actually used it. I've always just used ftp as a command-line ftp client, or scp to transfer files securely. :)