Associate .blend with a newer version installed

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#1

Hello,

I have 2.91 (W10 x64) installed side by side with 2.90.1. I can’t associate .blend file with 2.91 even by choosing “Open With” and searching for the .exe of Blender 2.91 or in the W10 parameters “Choose default applications by file type”. I had to uninstall 2.90.1 to make it happen.
Is there a way to do it without uninstalling previous version please ?

#2

Hello,
This will likely work. I have not tried this with Blender but this procedure has worked with other programs over many versions of Windows.
0) Change Windows to always show the extension eg .txt or .blend. I can’t remember where this is.

  1. Open File Explorer and navigate to the directory where the blend files are kept.
  2. Right click on a .blend file.
  3. Move the mouse button to the “Open With”. If you select Blender now it will only be for this specific moment that it will be opened.
  4. Move the mouse button and click on “Choose another app”. Wait. Wait. Wait. Windows is trying to guess what app you want. What ever it guesses is not what you want.
  5. Notice that there is now a check box which says “Always use this app to open .blend files”. Click on the box to check it. Then click on something like “Search app store” It will try to guess what you want. What ever it guesses is wrong.
  6. Notice that there is now an place to click which says something like “Search this disk” or “Search this PC”. Click on this.
  7. Navigate to where ever your install is located and select blender.exe.
    For many users it will be in C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91
    Did this help?
#3

register any version you please by running blender.exe -R or -r for silent treatment

#4

Hello, as I wrote in my post, I did this but it doesn’t work ;).

@ burnin, it works so Windows Explorer can “view” .blend previews but not to launch a .blend file with Blender 2.91.

#5

I think if you only have one version “installed” using the .msi installer at a time then you ought to get what you want. Use the .zip download for all “alternative” versions (and create a …\2.91\config\ folder in the extracted location if you want private configs for each version)

#6

Yes, that’s what I did at the end, unsintalling previous version.

#7

This actually works for .blend files:
To change .blend files to associate with a previous blender version:
from https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_programs/how-to-restore-set-associations-for-blend-files/380618de-d879-e011-9b4b-68b599b31bf5

  1. Open File Explorer
  2. Navigate to the version of Blender that you want. For example: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.90
  3. Do not select any file. Shift-Right Click in the file are to get a list of things available which includes “Open a command window here” or “Open a Powershell window here”. Select which ever of these shows up.
  4. If it is a command window run: blender.exe -r
  5. If it is a Powershell window run: .\blender.exe -r
    The blender program will associate itself with the .blend files.
    This worked for me.

The Setting, Associate program by file type did not allow me to pick the blender version.

#8

Ok thanks, I will try next time :).