'SAP' windows file type registered incorrectly

[jill_diesman]

Hello,

Our users log onto to the Portal, then use an iView that launches the SAP GUI for Windows client. Overall we have had no problems with this process.

However we recently had two cases where everything was apparently fine, except that SAP GUI for Windows failed to start. After looking into this we found the problem was that the "SAP" Extension on these computers were registered with the wrong File Type. Instead of "SAP GUI Shortcut," they were registered as "SAP File". To fix the problem, we can just change the existing SAP Extension - or delete it and re-register it - then all is well.

Do you have any ideas what could cause the SAP Extension to be registered with the wrong File Type?

About us...

NW 2004s, EP 7.0

SAP GUI for Windows 6.40 (patch 22) on typical Windows XP (OS patched and up to date)

During the last month we started distributing SAP GUI for Windows using an Installation Server. Users or IT staff run the installation on their computers using installation files on a shared network drive. In these two cases, the end users definitely did not mess with the system or installation. The installations were installed fresh by our IT department, and no problems were reported during the installation. We could also launch SAP GUI with saplogon.exe. But when SAP GUI failed to work when launched from the Portal (and maybe other problems - I don't know), IT tried one or more re-installations. This makes me wonder if the SAP Extension is getting messed up somehow during repeated uninstallation/re-installation attempts.

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Best Regards,

Jill Diesman

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jill,

Back with 6.20 we found that if SAPLOGON had not be run before a user logged on to the GUI through Portals, it wouldn't work correctly. I haven't tested it, but believe it holds true for 6.40 also.

SAPLOGON sets some registry keys needed for Portals to launch the GUI. We run SAPLOGON at the end of the install. You can also use the built in scripting to set the keys.

Regards,

John

[jill_diesman · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your reply, John. I don't think what you've suggested can be the root cause of our problem (at least, not in and of itself), because if it were, I would expect to see a lot more complaints coming in.

However I'm wondering about the registry keys you mentioned. In some cases our end-users are installing SAP GUI for Windows themselves, while in other cases our IT group is doing the installation. Could there be registry keys or other parameters that are user account-specific?

Regards,

Jill

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jill,

The keys I mentioned were in HK_Classes_Root. Where did you have to correct the problem? They don't exist by default in HKCU, but if set would override the the other settings. Perhaps the sapsetup logs could give you an idea of what happened.

Good Luck,

John

[jill_diesman · Accepted solution]

John,

I corrected this by going to Control Panel > Folder Options > File Types. I could not just delete the existing <i>.SAP</i> extension because it was apparently in a "modified" state - meaning the Delete button was inactive (grayed out), but the Restore and Change buttons were active. I hit the Restore button and the <i>.SAP</i> extension was then properly registered as the File Type <i>SAP GUI Shortcut</i>.

I see the keys you mentioned in HK_Classes_Root, but unfortunately my knowledge of the Windows registry only goes as far as running regedit and viewing what's there. I don't really understand what I see or how it all works.

Another interesting and frustrating development: Last week I uninstalled SAP GUI for Win from my laptop and then re-installed it from our installation server. My previous installations were from CD or direct download from the SMP. Before the uninstall I confirmed the SAP GUI Shortcut file type was registered. After the uninstall I confirmed that the SAP GUI Shortcut file type had been removed. After the re-installation from the installation server, I confirmed that the shortcut was back and registered properly.

....Fast forward to this week.... I performed the uninstallation again, then another re-installation from our installation server. This time I get the same problem a few of our end-users have reported: My <i>.SAP</i> extension is registered as File Type <i>SAP File</i> and opens with Notepad (as opposed to SAPGUI for Win32). Again, the Delete button is inactive.

Please let me know if you have any more ideas or suggestions. I will probably only continue my troubleshooting for a day or two more, before handing it back to our IT group. At this point I don't think the problem is specific to the SAP GUI software or the installation program - would you agree with that so far?

Thanks for your help so far, John. I will definitely award you points for your help, regardless the final outcome.

Best Regards,

Jill

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jill,

Sorry for the delay. I think that looking in the sapsetup.log file may give you an idea of what's happening. Here are some entries from mine that worked correctly:

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Attempting to create registry key <b>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.sap</b>

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Key already existed: OK

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Attempting to install registry string value with data SAPGui.Shortcut.File

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Overwrite mode or Force flag is set

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Value has been installed successfully

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Attempting to create registry key <b>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SAPGui.Shortcut.File</b>

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Key already existed: OK

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Attempting to install registry string value with data SAP GUI Shortcut

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Overwrite mode or Force flag is set

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Value has been installed successfully

16:52:35 SapFeiSv 1 String not displayed on Progress Dialog

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Attempting to create registry key HKCR\SAPGui.Shortcut.File

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Key already existed: OK

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Attempting to install registry integer value EditFlags with data 65536

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Overwrite mode or Force flag is set

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Value has been installed successfully

16:52:35 SapFeiSv 1 String not displayed on Progress Dialog

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Attempting to create registry key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SAPGui.Shortcut.File\shell\Open\command

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Key already existed: OK

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Attempting to install registry string value with data "C:\Program Files\SAP\FrontEnd\sapgui\sapgui.exe" /SHORTCUT="%1"

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Overwrite mode or Force flag is set

16:52:35 SapFeiKr 2 Value has been installed successfully

May want to look at the permissions on the registry keys.

Could the problem ones have had an older version of the GUI? Some of their uninstall routines were not very thorough, hence sapsweep. We've also seen DLL's coming back from the Recycle Bin, best to delete it before rebooting. A reboot after an uninstall seems to work the best.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

John

[jill_diesman · Accepted solution]

Closing question (should have closed a long while back).

Unfortunately this question was left open for several years, so I do not have explicit details about the resolution. However the problem was ultimately resolved after looking into the suggestions provided by John. I think it might have been John's last post that got me looking in the right place--namely, the previously installed GUI versions, out-dated DLL's, and rebooting between installs/uninstalls. We have not seen any problems of this kind over the last several years.

[jill_diesman]

Marking as unanswered so I can add a final post regarding the resolution.