gimp-win-remote and Windows Vista

In Windows Vista, opening a file in the same instance of GIMP (2.4.6 is currently the latest) appears to be much trickier than in Windows XP (well, I have yet to try that out there..).

R., 28.09.2012. update:

Turns out that it can be just as tricky on Windows XP, so the same solution applies.

First off, I used to try opening a file through the Open With... command, but that didn't work, because it yielded an error message. Nevertheless, the program was added to the registry and the Open With list, so it was easier to tweak it after that.

To access the Windows Registry, click the Windows button and then the Run... command, type regedit, press Enter, give permission to continue. You can also launch Regedit from the Command Prompt; the principle is the same.

The key that you need to navigate to is

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gimp-win-remote.exe\shell\open\command

The (Default) string in the right-side view of the key's contents already has the non-working command in it (the format of which usually works with most other apps to open files). Double-click (Default) to modify, and then between the app path and "%1" add with quotes and separate with one space on either size:

"gimp-2.4.exe"

The resulting command should look like this:

"C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\bin\gimp-win-remote.exe" "gimp-2.4.exe" "%1"

Click OK, quit the Registry Editor, and now try opening an image file with gimp-win-remote, if an instance of GIMP is open already.

I got the tip from here.

R., 28.09.2012. update

In addition, here's a registry solution to change the gimp-win-remote.exe program name in the Open With list (both in the shortcut menu and the dialog) to something less cryptic, once you're already using the registry to resolve the above situation.

(I tried this out in Windows XP, and I don't know if it will work the same in Windows Vista.)

Move up to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\gimp-win-remote.exe\shell\open\

— and create a FriendlyAppName string in it:

right-click in empty space of the right pane for the shortcut menu,
choose New > String Value, then write FriendlyAppName for the new value.

Now, that's only a parameter. To change it, double-click on it or press the Enter/Return key for it and write the friendly app name.

Because the Open With dialog sorts programs alphabetically, then GIMP and GNU Image Manipulation Program will appear near the top of the list. The GIMP, which sounds cooler, will then be near the bottom of the list, and reaching it when choosing a program to open a file may require scrolling (at least for the first time). In any way, GIMP 2.6 should already allow adding the Edit with GIMP command to an image file's context menu upon installation or when editing preferences.

In a computer that is used by an average user who understands English, I chose GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) as the friendly app name.

The simple reason was the the long name is self-explanatory and (GIMP) in parentheses is there for future name recognition.