Uninstalling old version breaks windows preview handler for new version.
When uninstalling an older version of illustrator, the windows preview handler for AI files gets removed such that it no longer functions for newer versions of illustrator that are already installed. The only resolution is to uninstall the newer version and reinstall which can be a pain, or manually modify the registry entries to assign the PDF handler to AI files.
Jeremy
shared this idea
Please get in touch with us at any of the other support channels – https://helpx.adobe.com/support.html . Since this is not a generic issue that we can reproduce at our end, we will need someone to look into your machine to figure out what is going on here.
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Jeremy
commented
This is still a thing. There are other forum posts regarding this problem. Here's how to reproduce. This happens on all of our machine.
Step 1: Install at least two versions of illustrator.
Step 2: Enable the preview tab in Window Explorer and verify that AI files will preview as normal.
Step 3: Uninstall all older version of Illustrator, leave the current version.
Step 4: See that now windows explorer will no longer preview AI files in the preview pane of windows explorer because the preview handler was removed by the uninstall of the older version. -
Jeremy
commented
Note, this issue is reproducible, it happens to multiple people in this office. When we upgrade to a major new version of AI, we usually keep the old version installed just in case the newer version has issues. When anyone eventually uninstalls the older version, the windows preview handler gets removed even though the newer version of AI is still installed.
To reproduce:
Install the latest *two* versions of illustrator.
uninstall the older version and windows preview handler gets removed.