How to change the app icon in Windows Explorer when you have both versions of Storyline

Jul 29, 2015

Kevin Thorn
By Kevin Thorn

First, a little background: There are two ways to open a .story project file.

  1. Open Storyline (v1 or v2), browse to the .story file and open.
  2. Open Windows Explorer and double-click a .story file.
    • This approach will launch the version of Storyline of the *icon* in Windows Explorer and NOT which version the actual .story file was created (with both Storyline 1 and Storyline 2 installed).

I'm currently using *Windows 7 and recently installed Storyline 1 Update 9 and noticed the application icons in Windows Explorer changed from the Storyline 2 icon to the Storyline 1 icon.

First thought was to right-click on an icon and choose "Open with...", navigate to Storyline 2 .exe and we're back in business.  Only, the .exe filename for both Storyline 1 and Storyline 2 are both "Storyline.exe" with no distinction other than their icons. Meaning, the Storyline 1 icon now shows for all .story files regardless of which version they were created in.

I use both versions with SL2 about 90% of the time and SL1 occasionally managing older projects. With the install of SL1 update, I'm not able to open SL2 project files by double-clicking in Windows Explorer due to the changed icon.

Out of curiosity, I tried something different. I was initially wrong thinking Windows will recognize the latest version of a software application, and that version's icon will show in Windows Explorer. Not the case.

Windows Explorer appears to recognize the latest *install* of a software application regardless of vendor version. Here are the steps I took to flip the icons from SL1 back to SL2:

  1. Uninstall Storyline 2
  2. Restart Windows
  3. Install Storyline 2
  4. Restart Windows
  5. Confirm SL2 icons now appear in Windows Explorer.

If you're having similar Battle Royale's with your *Windows 7 OS, it seems to be a simple process of ensuring SL2 is the latest recognized install.

*other version of Windows OS may behave differently.

8 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
almost 9 years ago07/29/15 at 3:40 pm (UTC)

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for sharing those steps here. I took a look at this myself (as I hadn't done the SL1 update yet) and after going through the steps to update, all my icons still looked to be SL2 and files opened automatically in SL2 - if they were SL1 or SL2. I'm curious what version of Windows you're on? I'm using Windows 8.1 currently. 

I'll reach out to our team and see if anyone else has seen this, but our current documentation about it opening in the latest version holds true for me. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
almost 9 years ago07/29/15 at 4:08 pm (UTC)

Thanks Kevin - I'll test it out on a Windows 7 VM. One of my other colleagues mentioned he saw the same behavior, and went through the following steps to change it:

  • Select an extension. select Change Program -> Select More Options, scroll all the way down and select look for another app on this PC
  • Select Storyline 2 here C:\Program Files (x86)\Articulate\Articulate Storyline 2
  • You need to go into this section to see if your default app changed: Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Associations
Kevin Thorn
almost 9 years ago07/29/15 at 4:31 pm (UTC)

Thanks. I'm using Win7 through VMware Fusion as well. Shouldn't matter though.

The steps you just shared I did as well. However, since both Storyline 1 and Storyline 2 share the same .story file extension, the association is correct. Yet, there doesn't appear to be away to change the association between versions even by choosing a different program.

Uninstalling and Reinstalling that forces Windows to recognize that latest install is the only way I'm able to find that works.

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