Starting with SOLIDWORKS 2012 SP4 a new method was introduced for launching SOLIDWORKS files from Windows Explorer. Instead of the files being associated directly to the sldworks.exe program, they are launched through a separate SOLIDWORKS Launcher program (swshellfilelauncher.exe). This is the program that enables the new functionality that asks which release of SOLIDWORKS you wish to use if you have more than one release installed on your system.
If you are experiencing issues with SOLIDWORKS file associations when using SOLIDWORKS 2012 SP 3 and older, follow the instructions from the article SolidWorks File Associations, for SOLIDWORKS 2012 SP4 and later follow these steps:
Step 1: In SOLIDWORKS go to Options and select the File Explorer page and click the Restore File Associations command.
Step 2: Right-click on a SOLIDWORKS file (for instance .sldprt) in Windows Explorer and select Choose default program… from the Open with flyout list.
Step 3: Select the SolidWorks Launcher program.
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 for the SOLIDWORKS Assembly (.sldasm) files and the SOLIDWORKS Drawings (.slddrw) files.
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