Windows 10: Can't set Photoshop CS6 as default app, silently changes to other apps

I just upgraded my work computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Home x64, build 1803. It was an in-place upgrade, not a fresh install (probably a mistake I know, but this is a production system so I had to minimize downtime & couldn't spend hours reconfiguring a fresh install). I've gotten everything working pretty much as it should, except for one INFURIATING thing: Windows is outright refusing to let me choose Photoshop CS6 as the default app to open image files. No matter how I try it, it simply will not let me.

When I go to Settings>Apps>Default Apps, Photoshop does not appear under the list of available programs for the image viewer. Photoshop also does not appear in the "Set defaults by app" screen, so I cannot select it that way.

If I go into "Choose default apps by file type", Photoshop DOES appear in the list of available programs for some of the image formats. Some...but not all. HOWEVER, if I try to select it as the default app for a specific type of image where it does appear in the list, it immediately changes back to the "Photos" app. It doesn't show any errors or warnings saying that it has been reset, it just...does it, suddenly and silently.

So, I used PowerShell to uninstall the Photos app under the assumption that getting rid of it will "reset" the defaults, tried selecting Photoshop as the default for the specific file types again...and this time it immediately and silently changed the default to "Windows Photo Viewer". ARGH!

Next, I right-clicked on an image file and selected Open With>Choose Another App. Photoshop DOES appear in this list, so I selected it and checked "Always use this app" and clicked OK. The image did open in Photoshop...once. After that, it still silently reset the default back to Windows Photo Viewer.

Now, Photoshop isn't the only image editor I have installed. I also got an old version of Jasc Paint Shop Pro installed, because we have a handful of .pspimage files that Photoshop cannot open. I tried selecting PSP as the default, and it worked perfectly fine. In fact, once I did that, now Photoshop suddenly appeared in the list of programs on the "Choose default apps" screen under the Photo viewer section. Progress? Nope! If I try then to select Photoshop as the default image viewer, it just immediately and silently goes right back to Paint Shop Pro. It does the same thing if I again try the Open With>Choose Another App route, it stays set to PSP.

Next, I went to a different computer running the same version of Photoshop on the same version of Windows, one on which Photoshop IS properly selected as the default app, and used DISM to export the default app settings to an XML file. I then copied that XML file onto the affected computer, and used DISM again to import those settings. The result...

...big fat nada. It immediately went back to silently setting Windows Photo Viewer as the default.

Like I said earlier, Windows is outright REFUSING to accept Photoshop as the default image viewer. We're starting to get into "bang head through wall" levels of frustration here.

Other things I have tried:
-Uninstalling & reinstalling Photoshop. Didn't work.
-Uninstalling Paint Shop Pro as a means of "forcing" it to use Photoshop, didn't work. It just switched the default back to Windows Photo Viewer (which cannot be uninstalled or disabled) even if I tried changing the default to Photoshop.
-Ran SFC, no errors found.
-Ran virus scan (Avira free antivirus), nothing found.
-Tried selecting the default while the antivirus was disabled, didn't work.

I did find another thread on these forums about someone having a similar problem, but in that case it turned out to be caused by the fact that they had two different versions of Photoshop installed simultaneously. That is not the case here...I have only Photoshop CS6 installed, and have never had any other version of Photoshop installed ever.

I'm to the point where, if I could figure out a way to bypass Windows file association security, I'd be tempted to just directly edit the registry myself. Obviously though, this is not possible since Windows 10 actively monitors the registry, and sets file associations back to default if it detects an unexpected change (which me manually editing the registry would qualify as).

So...does anyone know of any other ways I can change Photoshop to the default image viewer and have it STAY the default viewer? Registry edits I perhaps CAN do, or third-party utilities that'll work, anything? This has gotten so bothersome that I'm about ready to throw this computer in the river if I can't solve this.

Thank you for any assistance you can offer.

:)

 

Why can I not specifiy CS6 as the default app to open png files

Thank you, Vanessa. I had tried to set the file type .png to use CS6 as default, but the program did not show up in the list to choose. When I tried to do it from the program, CS6 was not in the list of apps to choose from. I went back to setting the
default for the file type, and CS6 was now there, so I was able to set CS6 as the default for .png files.

 

Photoshop CS6 Not Working Well In Windows 10

Hi Abeer,

I realize that you are facing issues with the Photoshop cs6 application your Windows 10 PC. I will try to help you with this issue.

Please answer these questions to get more clarity on this issue:

• 
  Do you have the updated version of Adobe software installed on the PC?
  
• 
  Is the issue specific to Adobe Photoshop cs6?
  

The programs which runs on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 should ideally work with Windows 10. Suggest you to update the Photoshop application and restart the computer to check if that helps.

Articles for reference.

https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/cs6-product-downloads.html

http://www.adobe.com/in/products/cs6/faq.html

If need be then you may want to uninstall and reinstall this application on Windows 10 to check if that helps.

Keep us informed to help you further.

 

Changing default app settings after update 1511

I just installed update 1511 on Window 10 Pro and it has changed many default app settings.

Most of these I can change back but photo viewer reverts to the Windows 10 Photo app each time.

I want to use Adobe Photoshop, which was the default setting before the update.

Changing the settings in Settings > Default Apps worked for other broken defaults such as browser and music player.

Photoshop was available for photos, but changes back next time I try.

Changing in File Explorer with right-click > Open With > Choose Another App and then selecting Photoshop and ticking "Always use this app..." works for one file and then reverts (as if Always use this app were not ticked).

Control Panel > Default Programs > "Set your default programs" does not show Photoshop in the list of programmes.

What can I do to convince it?