Adobe CS6 file associations are all messed up

[desertowl]

Many of CS6 file association extensions wont open;

After installing CS6 many of the previous extensions .psd .prproj .ai, I found broken and Windows 7 (64bit) would ask what program to open it with.

It would not give me the option to chose the obvious. So, I selected Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Default Programs\Set Associations and select Photoshop cs6 .exe and it would not assign it.

Same with several other files.

Even files I made fresh from CS6 photoshop(64) it wont select or give option to open with the program it was made with. I have to open the program first and select the file from inside the program.

Now Adobe Bridge CS6 shows all the files with a visual preview but when I select the file it says "windows cannot find 'C:\program file\adobe\adobe cs5 (64 bit)\photoshop.exe' make sure you typed the name correctly, then try again.

Somehow I have to unlink the old extensions because cs5 is gone but I can't seem to change the associations until whatever residual cs5 registry ghost still lives in my machine.

I have googled the problem and a lot of people are having this problem but no real fixes seem apparent or they are insanely drastic like wiping the whole drive and re-installing windows.

I see that this has happened before with other upgrades on the forums i.e. cs4 to cs5 years back.

This is my 6th upgrade and I gave adobe thousands and thousands of dollars and why is this problem not getting addressed when other been complaining about years ago and still not a viable solution is given.

[RenoufDesign]

Thank you ... your step by step help sorted my problem. Really appreciate the straight forward advice!

[PeggySue1617]

I TRIED THIS AND GOT AS FAR AS HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\ BUT PHOTOSHOP.EXE WASN'T LISTED.  WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???  PHOTOSHOP CS6 IS THE PROGRAM I AM USING, SO I KNOW IT IS INSTALLED.  THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING.

[desertowl]

I know it is frustrating to go into the registry if you never been in it before. You need to make absolutly sure you are in the right place because their are a lot of things in the registry that look similar that govern other functions. Be very careful in the registry what you do in there.

I would suggest double check and make sure your in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Photoshop.exe\shell\open\command

You may be looking into the wrong folder for example in my system their is a adobe.photoshop.addon, that is not the right place to be but it looks similar because the rest of the way in there with shell/open/command you might think your in the right place, when you are in fact not.

If you really don't have a photoshop.exe file I would wonder if maybe your on a shared server or perhaps on a cloud network, if so the problem would not be a local one but everyone on the network would have the same issue.

[rinchenkundrol]

Curt Y said:

"So I went into the Registry, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Photoshop.exe\shell\open\command, and changed the (Default) from "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe" "%1" to "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe" "%1" (so changed CS5 to CS6) - and now I see 'Adobe Photoshop CS6' in my 'Open with' list"

MANY thanks to Curt Y and to TinusHDCA for this fix. I too was having troubles with CS6 file associations and at least have gotten InDesign straightened out.

Prior to this fix I could open a file from within the program, but not outside of it. It was as if Win7 couldn't see CS6 at all. Now the proper Adobe icons populate where the file lives and I can double click to open InDesign. I'm kind of disgusted with Adobe's support though. Once tech support went off-shore, helpful and effective support seemed to disappear. Thank you community members!!

By the way, I didn't do any reg cleaning; only updating details in the registry from CS5.5 to CS6. Again, many thanks!

[pjpizza]

Thanks! That worked for me too

[Darkhorse20]

People that complain about this are very correct.  CC desktop screwed up my Photoshop CS6 when trialing Character Animator.  When working on your puppet and syncing it with Character Animator, their version of Photoshop, (no video editing and no 3D), takes over, this is when I got a sick feeling something is wrong.  It not only messes up your PSD files (popup window says files are missing) but also removes elements of the software so you can't open Photoshop and everything synced to it.

This is a serious problem, I guess the only way to protect from this happening is to change you Photoshop file names so it doesn't default to their version.  I not only lost CS6 Extended, but my version of After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, etc, that was willed to me from my Mom.  I'm seeing a lot more people complaining about this situation, and I want my stuff back!!!

[Bubblywink]

I had a similar problem with Dreamweaver CS6 on a Windows 7 64 bit machine refusing to be associated with .html files. Another forum suggested Default Programs Editor: http://defaultprogramseditor.com/
I was able to fix the broken file associations without reinstalling everything.

[Video_GUE]

This solved my problem. My issue started after installing CS6 while still having 5.5, then removing 5.5  Iwas unable to choose PP as a defulat program since I have it installed on a non system disk.   Changing the registry worked perfectly.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1005273

[bendthaus]

Another satisfied customer in 2015. I did the same thing. I had CS5 and CS6, "Oh I don't need CS5 anymore"

!bang! all the same issues described above,

The registry fix worked for me, except I had to edit the "Indesign" key instead of the Photoshop key.

Thanks!

I wish Adobe had their act together.

[Arriez]

I've had this problem twice now in the last two years, I seriously expected this problem would be fixed by now, I'm on Windows 7.I just upgraded from 2015 to 2015.5 and boom.

So I went into the Registry, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\Photoshop.exe\shell\open\command, and changed the(Default) from "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe" "%1" to "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS6 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe" "%1" (so changed CS5 to CS6) - and now I see 'Adobe Photoshop CS6' in my 'Open with' list when right-clicking an image...

This is what I found useful, but I changed 2015 to 2015.5 like below. Now Photoshop is shown in the list of default programs.
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.5\Photoshop.exe" "%1"

Thanks Curt Y!