Blog Windows 8 and SOLIDWORKS
We recently had a customer who installed SOLIDWORKS on a machine that had Windows 8. SOLIDWORKS 2014 will run fine on a machine with Windows 8 but this customer had an unusual situation happen. While in Windows Explorer, when he right clicked on a SOLIDWORKS file he no longer got the typical menu of Pack and Go, Rename, Replace and Move.
If that situation happens to you, here are the steps you can take to solve this issue. If you cannot see them on a new Windows 8 system then you need to define the file association for the SOLIDWORKS file types with the new SOLIDWORKS Launcher. To do this:
1. In File Explorer, Right Mouse Button (RMB) Click on a SOLIDWORKS part file and select "Choose default program".
2. Assuming you have SOLIDWORKS 2013 installed, you will see a pop up window asking "How do you want to open this type of file (.sldprt)?" and the option of either 'SOLIDWORKS 2013' or 'SOLIDWORKS Launcher'.
3. Make sure you tick the box titled "use this application for all .sldprt files".
4. Select SOLIDWORKS Launcher.
SOLIDWORKS will then launch as normal. If you quit SOLIDWORKS and go back to your part file in File Explorer, you will now see the familiar SOLIDWORKS sub section of the pop up menu with Pack and Go, Rename, Replace and Move.
Please note, that you will need to do this for all SOLIDWORKS files – assemblies and drawings for example.