YXWZ file not recognized as Alteryx App

[jtmatthews50]

Something strange happened a few weeks ago, where all of my Alteryx app files (YXWZ) were no longer recognized as valid files. I was able to map them back to Alteryx Designer, but they don't show the specific app icon, and more importantly, don't have the edit option when I right click.

Also, in the list of file types, the other types of Alteryx files have descriptions as to what they are, but apps are just YXWZ.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Alteryx several times, but it hasn't helped.

Has anyone run into something similar and have a solution?

[sparksun]

You may right click the file and select "open with" and then manually select "Always open .YXWZ file with Alteryx Designer",hope it works.

[jtmatthews50]

I did try that, and it allows me to open the app as an app, but my main issue is the fact that I can no longer right click and choose edit to open it in designer. It isn't the end of the world since I can open designer first and open it from there, but it has become a real annoyance over the past few weeks to have to re-navigate to a folder in the designer "open file" screen when I already have the file location open in file explorer.

Is there a way to get it back to the default behavior?

[jtmatthews50 · Accepted solution]

I was able to resolve this, but it required manually editing the windows registry to recreate the file type association.

[AlphaCentauri]

I am having this same issue. 

Any Chance you can provide a step by step?

[jtmatthews50 · Accepted solution]

Warning: be very careful with working in the registry editor, as you can inadvertently cause a lot of damage to your PC if you change something that you shouldn't.

1. Find the key called "Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Alteryx Apps", double click and copy the value data 
2. Go to key "Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.YXWZ", double click and paste in the value you copied from the Alteryx Apps key

3. Your Alteryx App files should be back to normal now, and you'll see them being recognized as an app and have the option to edit when right clicking.