PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston An undocumented feature of Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and related programs makes the applications open b
[See the full post at: Secret Photoshop feature won’t open images with certain filenames]
![]() |
There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented on this site. |
SIGN IN | Not a member? | REGISTER | PLUS MEMBERSHIP |
-
Secret Photoshop feature won’t open images with certain filenames
Home » Forums » Newsletter and Homepage topics » Secret Photoshop feature won’t open images with certain filenames
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 3 years ago.
AuthorTopicB. Livingston
AskWoody MVPApril 4, 2022 at 2:43 am #2436621Viewing 4 reply threadsAuthorReplies-
rc primak
AskWoody_MVPApril 4, 2022 at 5:01 am #2436655This is one reason why I prefer open source software. If you find a bug or Easter Egg like this and want to correct it, you can look into the code, and edit it (or recompile it) and have a fully functional program. Then you can donate your corrected code to the open source community as a fixed version or fork of the software. Proprietary code is opaque and does not offer these options.
And I guarantee a open source project developer will not dismiss bug reports as “it’s you, not me”. Open source developers also rarely refuse to patch older versions. But even if they do, you can always create your own fork.
-- rc primak
-
TJ
AskWoody PlusApril 4, 2022 at 5:20 am #2436659I also use Brian’s formentioned Faststone Image Viewer in combination with Photoshop Elements 2022, and I think it’s a Photoshop (Elements) bug. In my experience this bug occurs with ALL images, whatever the files are named.
Previously I could trigger PSE (i.e. PhotshopElementsEditor.exe) to open an image from within Faststone Image Viewer, but that does not work anymore. It does trigger PSE to open, but the image does not load.LMDE is my daily driver now. Old friend Win10 keeps spinning in the background1 user thanked author for this post.
-
anonymous
GuestApril 4, 2022 at 10:49 am #2436685Don’t you people remember DOS command lines? The “S-” is the clue that what follows are commands to perform upon opening the program. There might be things like “Sharpen” and/or “B&W” that follow that tell PhotoShop to perform these functions to the files that are named at the end of the line, including series of files like “Vaca*.jpg”… thus open and Sharpen, then convert to Black and White, all files that begin with “Vaca” and end with “.jpg”.
This may be considered a “bug” as a remnant of the old DOS versions of the progrma,but it could also be useful to others as a CMD mode command to perform multiple actions to a series of files.
1 user thanked author for this post.
-
Noel Carboni
AskWoody_MVPApril 4, 2022 at 11:44 am #2436767I’m with Adobe Quality Engineering and saw the article…
I’ve found the misbehaving code – it’s a long-standing bug that’s, on Windows, in an incomplete way looking for the presence of the command line parameter “-Quit”. Nothing nefarious, just the accidental use of a “substring match” function instead of a “whole string match” function. And as surmised, the code has been shared with other products in the past couple of decades.
Thanks for bringing this up here, Brian. When I see notifications about the disposition of this issue I’ll follow up here, if I can find this thread again.
-Noel
3 users thanked author for this post.
-
Noel Carboni
AskWoody_MVPMay 5, 2022 at 8:46 am #2444362The issue was not given high priority, so I just changed it myself in the Photoshop source code. As I mentioned above, it was a misrecognition of a debugging test switch embedded in a filename – a minor coding oversight almost 2 decades ago. Look for the change in the Photoshop 2022 version 22.4 release later this year.
-Noel
1 user thanked author for this post.
Viewing 4 reply threads -

Plus Membership
Donations from Plus members keep this site going. You can identify the people who support AskWoody by the Plus badge on their avatars.
AskWoody Plus members not only get access to all of the contents of this site -- including Susan Bradley's frequently updated Patch Watch listing -- they also receive weekly AskWoody Plus Newsletters (formerly Windows Secrets Newsletter) and AskWoody Plus Alerts, emails when there are important breaking developments.
Get Plus!
Welcome to our unique respite from the madness.
It's easy to post questions about Windows 11, Windows 10, Win8.1, Win7, Surface, Office, or browse through our Forums. Post anonymously or register for greater privileges. Keep it civil, please: Decorous Lounge rules strictly enforced. Questions? Contact Customer Support.
Search Newsletters
Search Forums
View the Forum
Search for Topics
Recent Topics
-
Firefox 139
by
Charlie
14 minutes ago -
Who knows what?
by
Will Fastie
2 hours, 16 minutes ago -
My top ten underappreciated features in Office
by
Peter Deegan
17 minutes ago -
WAU Manager — It’s your computer, you are in charge!
by
Deanna McElveen
7 hours, 9 minutes ago -
Misbehaving devices
by
Susan Bradley
24 minutes ago -
.NET 8.0 Desktop Runtime (v8.0.16) – Windows x86 Installer
by
WSmeyerbos
1 day ago -
Neowin poll : What do you plan to do on Windows 10 EOS
by
Alex5723
1 hour, 9 minutes ago -
May 31, 2025—KB5062170 (OS Builds 22621.5415 and 22631.5415 Out-of-band
by
Alex5723
23 hours, 22 minutes ago -
Discover the Best AI Tools for Everything
by
Alex5723
23 hours, 31 minutes ago -
Edge Seems To Be Gaining Weight
by
bbearren
13 hours, 40 minutes ago -
Rufus is available from the MSFT Store
by
PL1
21 hours, 42 minutes ago -
Microsoft : Ending USB-C® Port Confusion
by
Alex5723
2 days ago -
KB5061768 update for Intel vPro processor
by
drmark
22 minutes ago -
Outlook 365 classic has exhausted all shared resources
by
drmark
2 hours, 41 minutes ago -
My Simple Word 2010 Macro Is Not Working
by
mbennett555
1 day, 20 hours ago -
Office gets current release
by
Susan Bradley
1 day, 22 hours ago -
FBI: Still Using One of These Old Routers? It’s Vulnerable to Hackers
by
Alex5723
3 days, 13 hours ago -
Windows AI Local Only no NPU required!
by
RetiredGeek
2 days, 21 hours ago -
Stop the OneDrive defaults
by
CWBillow
3 days, 13 hours ago -
Windows 11 Insider Preview build 27868 released to Canary
by
joep517
3 days, 23 hours ago -
X Suspends Encrypted DMs
by
Alex5723
4 days, 1 hour ago -
WSJ : My Robot and Me AI generated movie
by
Alex5723
4 days, 2 hours ago -
Botnet hacks 9,000+ ASUS routers to add persistent SSH backdoor
by
Alex5723
4 days, 2 hours ago -
OpenAI model sabotages shutdown code
by
Cybertooth
4 days, 3 hours ago -
Backup and access old e-mails after company e-mail address is terminated
by
M W Leijendekker
3 days, 15 hours ago -
Enabling Secureboot
by
ITguy
3 days, 22 hours ago -
Windows hosting exposes additional bugs
by
Susan Bradley
4 days, 11 hours ago -
No more rounded corners??
by
CWBillow
4 days, 7 hours ago -
Android 15 and IPV6
by
Win7and10
3 days, 20 hours ago -
KB5058405 might fail to install with recovery error 0xc0000098 in ACPI.sys
by
Susan Bradley
4 days, 23 hours ago
Recent blog posts
Key Links
S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
29 | 30 |
Want to Advertise in the free newsletter? How about a gift subscription in honor of a birthday? Send an email to sb@askwoody.com to ask how.
Mastodon profile for DefConPatch
Mastodon profile for AskWoody
Home • About • FAQ • Posts & Privacy • Forums • My Account
Register • Free Newsletter • Plus Membership • Gift Certificates • MS-DEFCON Alerts
Copyright ©2004-2025 by AskWoody Tech LLC. All Rights Reserved.