Windows 10 "Recent files"

Having been using Windows 10 for some time now, I've really got to like the Recent files 'folder' that appears under Quick access. I use it especially when attaching files to a Gmail email.

Essentially, all of your recent files appear in the Recent files list, no matter where you saved them, so you can get to them again quickly.

When I save a file from Xara Designer Pro v11, it appears in the Recent files list. However, when I export a file, it doesn't. Well, it does, but not as an image - and not with a shortcut that actually works.

I just exported this screenshot as quickaccess.png, so when I took the screenshot, the file didn't exist:
Attachment 113024

After exporting the file, an entry does appear in Recent files, but not as a 'real' file - it has no extension - and trying to open it doesn't work:
Attachment 113025

After accessing the file I exported outside of Xara (either by opening it, or browsing to it and attaching it just now), it does appear properly. Not from the straight export, though, and the duff file remains:
Attachment 113026

I see that too

Could be the file permissions - xara and win10 not in sync at this point

I posted this in June 2016, under a year after Windows 10's release and just six months after upgrading to Xara Designer Pro X11. I'm still using Windows 10, and until yesterday, the same version of Designer Pro, too. I didn't expect the "Recent files" behaviour to change until I upgraded to a newer (and hopefully more Windows-10-friendly) Designer Pro release.

Yesterday I upgraded to the current version of Designer Pro (16.0.0.55162 DL x64 Oct 9 2018) and did hope that "Recent files" would now work. They don't.

I opened a ticket with Magix Support yesterday (#2018101517006581) referring them here. Hello, Magix Support!

Well they don't think it should work. Weird that they're happy with how it doesn't work, but they seem to be.

Quote:

---

Exported files wouldn't show up in Windows 10 "recent file" list, they need to be opened through windows first before they would appear there.

---

Maybe I'll try again in a couple more years: I'll remember to try the trial next time - it'll save asking for the refund I just requested.

to be fair it isn't the only program that does not work the way you wish it to

lets be clear why: this issue is a windows issue, not a xara one - what magix state is what MS designed this feature for... if it works with exported files as well in some programs that's a bonus, not an expectation

If you export a file it isn't really a recently "opened" file anyway is it. At least I wouldn't expect it to be. Just because it doesn't work as you expect, doesn't make it wrong.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by handrawn

to be fair it isn't the only program that does not work the way you wish it to

---

Do you know of any others? I don't have any other programs I can export images from as a fair comparison beyond PowerPoint and Affinity Designer - they both work the way I 'wish it to'. I just installed GIMP to have a go with that: it doesn't place anything in the Recent Files list when exporting something. I suggest that putting nothing there is more useful than putting a broken shortcut to a file with the same name, in the same folder, as my actual exported file.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by handrawn

lets be clear why: this issue is a windows issue, not a xara one - what magix state is what MS designed this feature for... if it works with exported files as well in some programs that's a bonus, not an expectation

---

I'm genuinely interested in that: how do you know it's a Windows issue and what Microsoft designed the feature for? Fifteen years ago I'd have defended Xara against almost anything too, but this strikes me as a weird defence unless you're sure that Microsoft specifically designed the 'Recent files' view to list only files with particular types of interaction.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ss-kalm

If you export a file it isn't really a recently "opened" file anyway is it.

---

I agree. The Windows 10 feature is called Recent files though, not Recently opened files. Anything you open, save, or export appears there if you're using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Affinity Designer. Xara's files appear there - usable if they were opened or saved, unusable if just exported.

Attachment 122394

As a reminder, Magix say "Exported files wouldn't show up in Windows 10 "recent file" list, they need to be opened through windows first before they would appear there." (my emphasis)... but if I export a file and then open it, it appears twice: first their broken entry, then the valid one. At the very least, the "before" part of Magix's reply describing the unique behaviour here, must be incorrect.

Attachment 122395

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ss-kalm

At least I wouldn't expect it to be. Just because it doesn't work as you expect, doesn't make it wrong.

---

Your implication being that it's right because that's what you expect. I'm not arguing that, just acknowledging it.

I go by the MS documentation I have... [though in places it uses the term 'recently accessed' rather than 'recently opened']

regarding the broken shortcuts in the recent file list - have you tried right-clicking and selecting open file location ? that should enable you find it and open it

that works for inkscape and my CS2 Photoshop/Illustrator which exhibit this behaviour to a degree

I obviously have no idea which MS documentation you have read, so am none the wiser.

Photoshop CS2 predates Windows 10's initial release by more than a decade, so I think the surprise is that it runs, rather than that not running perfectly.

The same list of Recent Files is shown in Outlook 2016's and Outlook 2019's 'Attach' menu. As Magix reposition Xara Designer as a general do-everything program, a good proportion of the files it produces must be sent by email. The Attach menu in Outlook saves time each time a non-Xara-generated attachment is added to an email.

Attachment 122400

While my vote might not count, voting with my wallet is all I can do, and my wallet has voted. I now have my refund for the upgrade to Designer Pro X16 back from Magix.

oh CS2 runs perfectly enough [if that's not oxymoronic] in legacy mode - sometimes panes can hide behind others, but that can happen anyway

I see the point about attachment - I dont use outlook the program, so I don't know if right clicking on that list would help

I would not have upgraded from ver 12 to 15.1 if I had not got the HumbleBundle deal - did you not trial ver 16 first? that option is still possible for new version numbers, something to remember for the future perhaps

Ignorance talking here. Perhaps Xara and other applications create a placemarker file without an extension and no content first up to "reserve" the filename ahead of a land-grab by anything else. The application then added the extension and content and finally deleting the zero-sized placemarker. In doing it this way around, Quick Access knows of the first empty file but the copy, file extension and filling of the correct file is possibly all low-level DOS/PowerShell commands that do not interact with the Quick Access rendering mechanism.

As we cannot readily change MS, though I did once, it might be possible for Xara to review its Export mechanism to see if the above has a germ of truth.

Acorn