Registration pitfalls

From a Winplot user:

I figured out what my problems with Winplot were. It occurred to me this morning that when I started using Winplot (a couple of years ago), I was installing the .exe file (and updates) in a folder different from the one in which I have stored the more recent updates. What was happening (without my realizing it) is that the winplot.exe file that was registered to be used in opening .wp2 and .wp3 files was an OLDER version of Winplot. I think that's almost surely the reason why Winplot was crashing when I attempted to open a .wp2 or .wp3 file by first navigating to “My Computer” or “Windows Explorer” and clicking the icon for the file. Whenever I first opened Winplot directly (by clicking the shortcut on my desktop), I got the most RECENT version of winplot.exe that I had downloaded, and that was NOT crashing.


After solving that problem (by registering the NEW version of winplot.exe as the program to be opened when I click the icon for a .wp2 or .wp2 file), I WAS able to use Winplot by clicking the icons for the .wp2/.wp3 files (by first navigating to those files from “My Computer”). But I still had one problem to solve. On the older .wp2/.wp3 files, the Winplot window AND the .wp2/.wp3 files opened simultaneously. The newer files would not open directly in this way. Then I decided to re-register the file types, so I opened “My Computer”, went to the View menu, chose “Folder Options,” clicked the “File Types” tab, and deleted the “registration” of Winplot as the file to be opened with .wp2 and .wp3 files. Then I re-registered these file types (using the “Open With” dialog box), and voila! Winplot is working fine now!