Save file error: File opened in Explorer or another process

[jesario]

I often get a message that I cannot save a file after I have just opened in Win 7 Explorer Like this:
http://i.imgur.com/TVMqmTD.png

The error can also come up saying it is opened in another process.

I have tried selecting a different file in Explorer to see if it is because it is opened in a preview. That does not help. Of course, I cannot delete the file, because it is opened in PDF-XChange Editor. If I try to delete it, the prompt says it is opened in Explorer, where actually it is open in PDF-XChange Editor.
http://i.imgur.com/E4VIJgb.png

The message also appears with Acrobat Reader, so I don't think it is necessarily a bug. But, I can open a file in the same directory in Office, make changes and save the file without a problem. (For example I can open the document Answers.doc and it works fine, saving without any error.)

Any way I can get around this? I have to constantly re-save the file with a new name. Delete the old and rename the new to the old. Quite redundant. Thanks!

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi jesario,

Thanks for the post - could you please run Process Explorer (link below) and try doing a search for the file name, both before the file is opened in the Editor and after? Please send screen-shots of the search in Process Explorer:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysi ... 96653.aspx

Cheers,

[jesario]

No results before opening the file.

Single click In Explorer without opening:
http://i.imgur.com/Uv2bRj2.png

After opening with Editor:
http://i.imgur.com/WItjG89.png

After trying to save with Editor:
http://i.imgur.com/Kctl1VC.png

Closing Explorer while being open in Editor:
http://i.imgur.com/NzWoiOG.png

After closing the file in Editor:
http://i.imgur.com/9iqanzm.png

The following were done in the order written, so the last step was a combination of all of the above steps.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi jesario,

Thanks for getting those to me, that's exactly what I needed.

From what I can see in the screen-shots, Explorer seems to constantly be keeping a handle on the file, so this is not something that we're doing, but is an issue with Windows Explorer (File Explorer from Windows 8 onwards).

I'm afraid that there is little that we can do to help here, other than suggest that, if you have the Explorer Preview turned on, to switch it off - this seems to help in the cases I've seen recently.

HTH!

[jesario]

OK, understanding that it was explorer now, I found this
Click one of the following: Tools -> Folder Options -> View ->Folder and search options.
Uncheck Show preview handlers in preview pane.

Of course I can't see files in the preview pane. However, PDFs are showing up with the pdf exchange editor icon.

I wonder is there a way to force explorer to either use the preview for Editor only or specify files (ie not do PDFs)

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi jesario,

I'm afraid that I don't know of any options to explicitly set this in Explorer.

OK, understanding that it was explorer now, I found this
Click one of the following: Tools -> Folder Options -> View ->Folder and search options.
Uncheck Show preview handlers in preview pane.

Of course I can't see files in the preview pane. However, PDFs are showing up with the pdf exchange editor icon.

The problem here is not with the Preview Handler (our Shell Extensions), but is with the Preview Host (Windows Explorer). Explorer should only be looking to the file to send a stream of data to the Shell Extensions. This stream doesn't actually interact with the file in any way and so Explorer shouldn't be locking it down. I'm afraid that there's very little that we can do to help here, given that the issue is with Explorer.

Cheers,

[jesario]

I am not sure it is Explorer's fault. I changed it to use Acrobat X reader as the file handler using Acrobat's option: under Edit > Preferences > General
At the bottom of page Select Default PDF Handler.

Then I right clicked and used Open With to open with X-change editor (since it is nolonger default). Then I can save no problem. Preview is also working in Explorer. The preview is different and looks like Adobe's.

When I change the default program to open PDFs with x-change Editor, the preview does not use Acrobat, but probably Editor's. It look like this:
http://i.imgur.com/6TMshQz.png

Now I get the error again.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi jesario,

When I change the default program to open PDFs with x-change Editor, the preview does not use Acrobat, but probably Editor's. It look like this:
http://i.imgur.com/6TMshQz.png

That's not our preview, I believe that may be Acrobat's, but it looks at little different - it's definitely not the Editor's preview though.

Does this only happen when the Editor is set as default?

Cheers,

[jesario]

Yes it is.

[jesario]

OK, I got it working. Using the preview handler editor (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/toub/archive/20 ... ditor.aspx) I could see that I had two handlers installed for supposed PDF's. One was yours and the other was Adobe PDF Preview Handler for Vista.
http://i.imgur.com/7vifu62.png

The file extension associated with it, as you can see was ".pdf" but such extension does not show up with Editor's registered files/extensions. Maybe ".pdf" needs to be added to your registry key, because the two that Editor registers (which are not typical files extensions but do work otherwise) were failing to pick PDFs up.
http://i.imgur.com/DwSp7hR.png

Now my files finally save without any issue. I just unchecked the .pdf extension for the Adobe PDF Preview Handler for Vista and now I have this:
http://i.imgur.com/LXPH4Vq.png

I will miss having scroll bars and full-width look, but this is much better than before since it saves without error. I might suggest a more robust viewer for Editor with options similar to what Acrobat X has.

[jesario]

FYI: This issue seems to be fixed in 5.5 Build 308.1

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi jesario,

Great, glad to hear it! If this does re-appear, let us know.

Cheers,