Installation doesn't work, broke Windows Explorer about filemeta

[Dijji]

[Dijji@22/07/2014]
I don't see anything obviously scary in that list of extensions. When you say that you can't edit metadata for .txt, what problems do you see?

I wouldn't expect File Metadata to have any impact on drag-and-drop or refresh, as it goes nowhere near the hooks for either of these. The only extension installed by File Metadata is a context menu, which by the way is an optional component that you can deselect during installation.

Also, remember that explorer.exe keeps state, so when you uninstall or install extensions, it is often necessary to kill all copies of explorer.exe and restart it in order to see changes correctly. Of course, reboot does that job too!

[Dijji]

[Dijji@22/07/2014]
Of course, File Metadata does also install a property handler. However, this extends the property system rather than Explorer: it has no impact on Explorer unless and until you use the File Association Manager to register extensions for which it should be used.

So, installing File Metadata without the optional context menu and without using File Association Manager to associate the handler with any extensions, should have no impact on Explorer whatsoever. Note, though, that you would have to previously have used the File Association Manager to remove any associations that you have previously set up, as these are not removed by uninstalling File Metadata.

[Dijji]

[M_Pixel@22/07/2014]
Dijji,

I was able to fix the Explorer problems by uninstalling a few things, then rebooting.

I wasn't initially aware that each extension needed to be manually activated through the Property Handler. The tidbit on the main description doesn't make it clear that this is a necessary step toward achieving functionality. I found out eventually when I read through the documentation.

For ease of use, I would recommend having some bulleted install instructions on the main description that point out that using the Property Handler is a necessary step.

It's good to know that the program doesn't actually interface with Explorer. I was curious why I didn't see it in my extensions list (I suspected that was why I wasn't seeing it working).

Thanks for taking the time to reply! This is a great project. It's too bad SkyDrive doesn't support searching by tags (it preserves them on Office documents, so it must save those streams!). We'll see what happens in Windows 9 then...

[Dijji]

[Dijji@23/07/2014]
I'm very pleased to hear that you've now got things working properly - thanks for the update.

Also, thanks for the documentation tip: I am always grateful for feedback that lets me know where I am not being clear. I will tighten this up. It's so hard to think yourself into in the shoes of your readers!

Dijji

[Dijji]

[UnknownUser@23/07/2014]

[Dijji]

Issue closed by Dijji with comment
Documentation improved to try and make things clearer

Reason closed
Fixed