Accidentally made Chrome open every time I start an application

phrab · 29 Apr 2017

I have an indexing utility called Wilbur that I've used for years on Windows XP. I just installed it on Windows 10. When I opened it, a dialog box came up and said how do you want to open this utility. I incorrectly thought I chose Wilbur, but somehow Google Chrome was selected. Now every time I launch it, although it launches, it also launches Chrome.

I have File Types Manager, but this is an .exe file. I don't know how to get rid of this behavior (I tried uninstalling & reinstalling.)

What can I do? Thanks.

Additional: It seems that somehow, when I open the executable, it wants to also open the help file, which is an .htm file. So maybe it's a problem with how I installed it. I still need help though.

dalchina · 01 May 2017

Hi, try using a system restore point to restore your PC as it was before you installed the program.
(System restore will only be useful if you ever enabled it - it's off by default in Win 10, strangely).

Or, use a previously created disk image to restore your system. (If you are not in the habit of using disk imaging routinely as we strongly and repeatedly recommend- when this is fixed will be a good time to start). Disk imaging helps you to help yourself without technical help in many cases.

Failing the above, you could try uninstalling Wilbur with the help of Revo Uninstaller (free). That will search for anything related to it.

I have to admit I'm finding it hard to quite grasp what you did.

When I opened it, a dialog box came up and said how do you want to open this utility.

Do you mean... when I launched Wilbur (by clicking on a shortcut) a dialog box came up....?
What exactly did you open?

I can't see how

When I opened it,

relates to

how do you want to open this utility

phrab · 01 May 2017

Thank you for your reply, dalchina. I was able to use a backup (I do make them every other day) to prevent the behavior. System restore, although I did enable it some time ago, doesn't restore...that's another issue.

To be more specific, when I start Wilbur (which is a search tool), I get a error icon (which I uploaded). When I click on that, it now starts Wilbur. However, when I clicked on it before I restored from a backup, I got a dialog box asking me how I wanted to open this utility. Apparently, it wanted to open an online help file & that's how I accidentally made Chrome the default.

I still get this error message, although clicking either OK or the "x" opens Wilbur.

Accidentally made Chrome open every time I start an application-wilburstart.png

Not sure why this happens, as I had no trouble with this in Windows XP.

dalchina · 01 May 2017

Hi, here's what I found when I installed it, and how to get rid of the

Accidentally made Chrome open every time I start an application-132900d1493654071-accidentally-made-chrome-open-every-time-i-start-application-wilburstart.png

1. The first time I ran it, it opened a browser page (a local htm file)
file:///D:/File%20Management/Search%20tools/Wilbur/help/gettingstarted.htm

It also gave me the yellow ! window you show above.

Clicking on the OK button => the main window opened.

a dialog box came up and said how do you want to open this utility

I didn't see this.

I'm wondering if that was

How do you want to open this file?

- that is, you had no htm file type association defined.

The question as you stated it makes little sense, part of what confused me.

2. Dealing with this:

This relatively easy. Well, it is for me as I use Classic Shell as my start menu. This might be harder for you if you use Win 10's start menu.
Rt click the start menu shortcut, Properties, Compatibility, Run Compatibility Troubleshooter.
That sets it to XP SP3.

First time Wilbur's run, if UAC is enabled, there's now a UAC prompt.

Having done that, the yellow ! is no more.

But- the Getting Started page (which claims it will only be displayed the first time) is displayed every time Wilbur is started - exactly as you note.

Now for Wibur only to show this the first time, there would have to be some sort of flag- in the registry or an ini file, perhaps.

I've looked at the registry entries and can't see a contender, and there's nothing in the installation folder that looks likely. I would conclude that for whatever reason Wilbur can't write somewhere to set that flag. (It's old software).

I think you're correctly seeing your default browser opening the Getting Started page, and you defined the association for htm files when you first launched Wilbur. (But if you think an htm file is opening the wrong program, you can change the file association for htm files).

As an aside, are you aware Google desktop search (although obsolete) is still available to download? One unique attribute was the ability, via an add-on, to OCR documents for indexing.

phrab · 01 May 2017

:) You've done it again, dalchina. I ran the compatibility troubleshooter, chose "...worked in previous versions...", Windows XP (SP3). Now it opens without the error message & without going to the help Start page. Not sure why it still went to start page for you, but it doesn't for me. The only problem I had was that it said it couldn't find the indexes at Program Files (x86)>Wilbur >Indexes because I created them in my Documents folder. After I copied all the indexes over, I got no more error messages.

And I will download & try the Google desktop search! After almost 4 months, I may actually start liking Windows 10

And, as another aside, I don't know if you prefer using the keyboard to the mouse, but 2 great utilities are Launchy (which I use for apps) & Everything (which I use for folders.

dalchina · 01 May 2017

Good.. curious I never came across that search tool way back. I tried several. Launchy I used a little a long time back.

I prefer Locate32 to Everything- do you use the beta version with the added GUI for search criteria, if that's still the latest? (There's seemingly 3 years between the beta and the last official release)

Programs I launch from Classic Shell's search, or from sTablauncher, a dockable tabbed launchbar which supports drag 'n drop.

If I'm in a really good mood I might say e.g. 'Hey Cortana, open FineReader' (launches Abby Finereader), or 'open Writer' - starts WPS Writer.

phrab · 01 May 2017

I'm using Version 1.4.1.867b (x64) of Everything. I used to use "DirNow!", a little known utility that was wonderful. When trying to open folders, you could type any part of the folder name to search & it had options to search any part of the path or just the last part after a slash. I used it for awhile in Windows 10, but eventually it stopped working correctly. I may try it again. I can send it to you if you want to try it. I'll try out some of the utilities that you've mentioned.