How can you open multiple instances of the same application in Windows?

Example, if you double click on a .txt file, Notepad opens.
If you double click on another .txt file, another instance of Notepad opens. I want another program to do that for another extension, when I right click > Open with...
and to do that for multiple files.


If the program you want to use is not installed using Setup.exe, if it's just run from a folder, I guess you can:



Windows XP > Tools > Folder Options > File Types TAB > scroll down to any extension and click on Advanced, you can edit the "Application used to perform action" so that when you add "%1" next to it, it will open multiple instances of that application if you wish to open multiple files with that extension by double clicking on those files.


However, how can you get the same application to do that if you right click and try to Open with... Currently it can only do that for one file. You need to close it and then it can do it for another file like that using right click > Open with. But I want it to keep the first file open, and launch another instance to open another file.

could you create a shortcut to the application, somehow include the %1 in the target as a switch, put the shortcut into the send to folder of the user profile.

then instead of doing open with, you could do send to

That's smart medo145, that did work


I wonder if we can replicate the "%1" trick to work with "Open with" somehow. Also, how do you get removable media out of the Send To menu if it's not in the SendTo folder?

I think it depends on the application you want to do this with.

Once you identify the application, you then must modify the registry entry which is used to handle that extension under hkey_classes_root. Craft a shortcut which uses the command line switch specific to that application in order to force it to open a new instance, place that shortcut in a location that is in your environment path, rename the shortcut to something unique (shword), then point the hkey_classes_root entry for that extension at the shortcut.

Do I win?

Couldn't get my above advice to work, however you could also create a cmd or bat file with content similar to this:

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /n "%1"
or
start "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /n "%1"
or
call "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /n "%1"

It will launch a new instance each time you click open with and select the cmd/bat file. However, I can't get the cmd.exe window to disappear because processing on the cmd/bat halts until the adobe instance is closed (on XP)

Send To works, it's just like Open with, only lower on the menu.


It is a simple solution, though I do appreciate the effort!

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/nodrives.htm

c627627 said:

Also, how do you get removable media out of the Send To menu if it's not in the SendTo folder?

Click to expand...

Tweak UI > My Computer > Drives

or


HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

Value name: NoDrives

For example, when the A:\ drive is hidden, NoDrives is assigned a value of 01 00 00 00 (REG_BINARY)


Note: NoDrivesInSendToMenu does not work in Windows XP, but works in Windows Vista/7 systems.

glad it worked out for you

i tend to create shortcuts to certain folders when i'm working with them a lot. this way it saves quite some time by not having to open the directory over and over again