Windows 8.1: *.unitypackage file extension should be handled by -which- EXE?

Running two separate installations of Unity and have created for myself one heck of a problem.

DEFAULT & DESIRED BEHAVIOR:

Upon double-clicking a *.unitypackage in Windows Explorer:​

If either installation of Unity is already active in the Task Manager:

The active installation will handle it and proceed to prompt the "add assets to project" window for the currently active project.​

Otherwise, if an installation of Unity is not active in the Task Manager:

The most recently installed version of Unity will be launched and prompt the "New Project" window[**].
​

CURRENT BEHAVIOR :

I had attempted to manually switch which installation would be launched upon above case [**] by associating the *.unitypackage extension to desired installation's Unity.exe, which resulted in the BROKEN BEHAVIOR as described below.
​

BROKEN BEHAVIOR:

Upon double-clicking a UNITYPACKAGE in Windows Explorer:​

If either installation of Unity is already active in the Task Manager:

A new instance of the most recently installed version of Unity will be launched and prompt the "New Project" window, disregarding entirely the presence of the currently active installation of Unity.​

Otherwise, if an installation of Unity is not active in the Task Manager:

The most recently installed version of Unity will be launched and prompt the "New Project" window.
​

In order to return to the DEFAULT, DESIRED BEHAVIOR, I tried the following:

• Uninstalling both versions,
• Restarting,
• Wiping the remnant folders including all relevant AppData folders,
• Wiping the remnant registry entries,
• Dissociating the *.unitypackage extension from Windows,
• Restarting,
• Finally, doing a round of CCleaner after all of this to hopefully wipe any remaining dead registry entries,
• Restarting,
• Reinstalling and launching Unity. However...

...new installations of Unity are not assigning the *.unitypackage file extension to their intended defaults. My Windows installation has no idea what the heck to do with *.unitypackage files, nor do I know what to assign them to. So, my question for this thread: which EXE should be handling the *.unitypackage extension on Windows 8.1?

​

 

Any solution?

 

I need to know this too as somehow this association is messed up on mine as well. I am not certain but I think this started happening after installing the Unity5 RC1 build.

 

Double-clicking a *.doc should be handled by which version of Microsoft Word on my machine?

What I mean is, this is not something that OSes seem to be very good at. I'd never double click a unitypackage file and expect the right version of Unity to open. You really really really want to switch to the right Unity, and either import it or drag-and-drop it in.

If you know that the unitypackage should only every be loaded into the newest Unity version, then you probably can do some internet searches that tells you how to set this up.

 

I was using Unity 4.6 x86 in Win7 x64, and exactly same thing happening to me after install Unity 5 x64...
I didn't try uninstall and re-install progress yet, but wow.. that doesn't help?

 

I managed to restore it's expected behavior by re-associating it with Unity.exe (Unity 5 version). Did it following the Control Panel workflow:
http://www.openfilepro.com/fix-files/how-to-open-UNITYPACKAGE-files.html

 

This happened to me as well. I uninstalled Unity 4 after I installed Unity 5 and it destroyed the file association with Unity 5. Anyhow, here's the registry file contents that will fix the problem. Open notepad, dump the following lines into it, and save it as unitypfix.reg. I've tested this successfully on Windows 8.1. You can see that the problem is the extra -openfile parameter that Unity needs when it sees unitypackages. That's why you can't just right click and choose open with. I hope this helps.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.unityPackage]
@="Unity package file"
"backup_val"="Unity package file"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file]
@="Unity package file"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\DefaultIcon]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Unity\\Editor\\Unity.exe\",0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell]
@="open"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell\edit]
@="Edit Unity package file"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell\edit\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Unity\\Editor\\Unity.exe\" -openfile \"%1\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell\open]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Unity\\Editor\\Unity.exe\" -openfile \"%1\""

 

Regedit hack works with windows 7 64 bit too, I broke the link by having two installations of unity, 4 and 5. Now I only have 5 and I wanted to restore the old behaviour.

Now the problem is that, if Unity is not running, package is imported directly, with no prompt of what to import (and it's corresponding cancel option)

If unity is running, this window appears normally and you can chek / unchek what you want to import, or cancel if needed.

 

This is the best solution =]

 

Works ON windows 10 64bit

 

I lost association tried the notepad thing on win 7 32 bit but not working do you need to store the notepad file somewhere?

 

Works for me on Windows 8.1. 64bit. Thanks

 

Thanks for @fgxqstje solution. It works but additionally I also need to remove the registry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.unitypackage before run the .reg file

 

I have create this request and I think it should be like this

https://forum.unity.com/threads/please-let-us-open-unitypackage-with-unityhub.639244/

Each machine can have many version of unity editor. But it most likely have only one hub. And so what it should happen is, everything related to unity should be handled by hub itself

When we double click to open .unitypackage or trying to import things from asset store. Or if in any future if we would have URL scheme to import package into package manager from anywhere. The hub should handle it like this

• If there was no unity instance opened. The hub would just show a normal hub UI for select project like normal. But after the project was opened the hub will also telling that, that project should import that package we try to import from the start
• If there was exactly one unity instance opened. The hub should just command the opened instance to import package like normal register
• If there was multiple instances of unity opened. The hub should again open the select project UI like normal, sort by latest opened project as default. And then send the import command to that opened project
  • Alternatively. If the hub could know the last focused project windows. It might just import into that last focused project. And also if the hub was the last focused windows then it fallback to select project UI

 

in meantime, I've placed a UnityFix.reg here.
For further use, I've also added some comments on inside the file, so just open it with your Notepad and read it carefully.

Happy Importing

if you don't trust me, just copy and paste

Spoiler: UnityFix.reg

Code (csharp):

1. ;
2. ;    THIS WILL RESTORE THE UNITYPACKAGE FILE ASSOCIATION
3. ;                        BUT !!!
4. ;
5. ; 1) From regedit remove the KEY
6. ; HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.unitypackage
7. ;
8. ; 2) You have to change the Unity's path on the lines 20, 28, 33
9. ; pleae keep in mind that from folder to folder you have use a double slash \\
10. ; also, at the end of the path where Unity.exe sit, you have to add another slash \
11.  
12.  
13. Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
14. [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.unityPackage]
15. @="Unity package file"
16. "backup_val"="Unity package file"
17.  
18. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file]
19. @="Unity package file"
20.  
21. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\DefaultIcon]
22. @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Unity\\Hub\\Editor\\2019.2.0f1\\Editor\\Unity.exe\",0"
23.  
24. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell]
25. @="open"
26.  
27. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell\edit]
28. @="Edit Unity package file"
29.  
30. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell\edit\command]
31. @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Unity\\Hub\\Editor\\2019.2.0f1\\Editor\\Unity.exe\" -openfile \"%1\""
32.  
33. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell\open]
34.  
35. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Unity package file\shell\open\command]
36. @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Unity\\Hub\\Editor\\2019.2.0f1\\Editor\\Unity.exe\" -openfile \"%1\""

 

@MaximilianPs The downside of this method is we need to keep this reg file and change the version number every times we install new version. Which I need to always do it like that for years

 

@Thaina saddly, yes, it's true :-(

 

Hello guys, this method worked for me.