Double Clicking Folders does not open in Files

[weiluntong]

Description

Hi,

I've set the experimental flag "Set Files as the default file manager" and attempted a couple things. I was able to open up Files using win+e, however, I was unable to open a folder on my desktop by double clicking. Nothing shows up.

I can give you the logs, but there's nothing there, and if I check Event Viewer, no new events are generated.

What's most odd is that I've tracked down what commands are being run in regedit:
For HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\open\command and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\explore\command, the commands are set to "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Files\Files.App.Launcher.exe" "%1"

and for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{52205fd8-5dfb-447d-801a-d0b52f2e83e1}\shell\opennewwindow\command, the command is set to "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Files\Files.App.Launcher.exe".

and did a couple tests on cmd, I ran "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Files\Files.App.Launcher.exe" and noticed that it indeed opened Files.

When I ran "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Files\Files.App.Launcher.exe" "C:\Users\weilu\Desktop", nothing happens. Barring seeing the Files.App.Launcher.exe open briefly before closing in Task Manager without generating any events in Event Viewer nor creating any additional log output in the debug.log. This is the same that happens if I were to double click a folder on my desktop while I had Event Viewer and Task Manager open, and proceeded to check the log file after verifying that Files.App.Launcher.exe opened and closed in Task Manager.

and the final test I did was track down where the Files.exe was, and ran this:
"C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Files_3.7.6.0_x64__1y0xx7n9077q4\Files.App\Files.exe" "C:\Users\weilu\Desktop"
in which it properly opened Files up and showed me my Desktop folder contents.

Here's the ultimate kick in the teeth though hahahaha. I have another computer, Win11, that it works on. So I can't simply say that Files.App.Launcher.exe isn't accepting any arguments hence why it's crashing... That would unfortunately be too easy. There seems to be something else, and I'm not sure how else to generate more output to investigate it.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Enable "Set Files as the default file manager"
2. Ensure that Win+E brings up Files
3. Open Task Manager and click on "Details"
4. Try double clicking a folder located on the desktop
5. Verify that Files.App.Launcher.exe opens briefly before closing
6. Check if any Events were generated in Event Viewer
7. Check debug.log for any additional logs generated by Files

Requirements

• When supplied with an argument, Files.App.Launcher.exe should open a window in that directory.

Files Version

3.7.6.0

Windows Version

10.0.19045.4780

User ID

files-community (copy only provides "Files version" and "Windows version" as options)

Log File

debug.log

[Josh65-2201]

Thanks for the report, Have you tried restarting Windows?

[weiluntong]

I have indeed tried restarting.

[weiluntong]

I'd love to try and help where the issue is happening, I know it's gonna be difficult to reproduce. Are there maybe other areas that I can look at that might produce errors I can investigate?

Maybe I can run Files.App.Launcher.exe with a verbose tag or something?