How to apply LR edit to JPEG and not have the CR2 window open when you open said JPEG?

Let me first help you with some terminology issues: What you are calling the CR2 window is actually a plugin by Adobe called Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). It is an application/plugin that "translates" what a raw image would look like after it has been turned into a regular group of image pixels (this is actually known as demosaicing). So if you were looking at a Nikon raw image, or any other kind of raw image, you'd see the same ACR.

When you're working in Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, Lightroom Web, etc. you are using the same "engine" as ACR, just with slightly different skins but underneath, it's all the same animal, er, software.)

The one thing that actually separates a raw image from a TIF, JPG, or DNG image is that only the raw image format cannot contain the information generated by ACR (or Lightroom). That's why you'll find XMP files in your raw image's folder, also known as sidecar files. These are used by the appropriate software as they have the information of any changes done to the image. The other formats (jpg, tif, and DNG, are container files in that they store the xmp files inside the file. However, no pixel was actually changed when working with ACR, only the data in the xmp file.

So, when you work on a JPG file in ACR, the actual changes are stored inside the JPF file. When you open a jpg file on YOUR system, it first has to be "translated" by ACR to see what has been done to the file to be able to opened in Photoshop. If you send a jpg file to anyone who does not have Photoshop (and ACR), it will open as a jpg file but without ANY of the changes you have made.

Now the one area where I'm having problems understanding your process, when you say you make final adjustments to the image in LR after having done so in Photoshop, I'm not at all sure about what you're talking about here. Can you elaborate more on your process here? And why? And where is the image you're bringing back to LR?

Thanks,

I am not 100% sure that I am understanding your questions. However, your CR2 is a Raw file format, which means Photoshop must use Adobe Camera Raw to open the file. You can always export your files as a JPEG from Lr, but then you'll no longer be editing the Raw data.

warmly/j