How to open Notepad++ session files as sessions instead of raw text files?

Question

This should be pretty simple for any experienced users of NPP.

Desired behavior:

1. Double-click Notepad++ session file (I use .npp)

2. Session opens in Notepad++

I understand the session file can be opened after opening Notepadd++ from the Open File dialog, but that is not the desired behavior. I've achieved the desired behavior on WinXP and Win8 with no problem, but can't get Win7 (x64) to cooperate. First, I tried simply changing session extension to npp (Settings > Preferences > Misc). But since no program was associated with .npp, I got the "Open With..." menu. Next, I tried associating .npp files with Notepad++, but then the files open in Notepad++ as raw text files, not session files. What am I missing? I've done this before many times, just never on Win7. Thank you very much, I tried Google for an hour but found no help.

Answer 1

Settings > Preferences > MISC > Session file ext

"If an extension is entered in Session file ext, Notepad++ will try to open these files as session files instead of regular files. This allows you to simply provide a session file via the command line or any other method of opening a file to load a session into Notepad++."

http://npp-community.tuxfamily.org/documentation/notepad-user-manual/settings/preferences

Answer 2

I seem to have figured it out. The problem is that something has changed in new version of NPP where it cannot parse NPP sessions saved by previous versions of NPP. If so, the only solution know of is what I did - recreated my old sessions and re-saved over the old session files...