3455679 - Empty windows are opened when opening multiple Crystal reports simultaneously in Windows OS

• When opening multiple Crystal reports simultaneously in Windows OS, multiple Crystal Reports windows are opened but some of them are empty
• Reports are opened in one or two windows
• The behavior may seem random and irregular

• SAP Crystal Reports 2016
• SAP Crystal Reports 2020
• Windows Operating System

1. In Windows OS, open a folder that contains multiple Crystal reports or templates in .rpt format
2. Select all the .rpt files and open together
   =>>  Multiple Crystal Reports windows are opened but some of them are empty

• By default, .rpt files are opened by Crystal Reports Launcher. This is because not only SAP Crystal Reports, but also SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise and SAP Crystal Reports Viewer can open .rpt files.
• When user right click to open a .rpt file, it starts the CRStartup.exe, which will check if the 3 tools are installed, analyze the .rpt file, then choose one of them to open the .rpt file. 
• When opening multiple .rpt files at same time, multiple CRStartup.exe will be started up.
  • If there’s a running application that can open .rpt files, such as crw64.exe, then all the CRS.Startup.exe end up running this same crw64.exe. All the reports will be opened in the same window.
  • If there’s no running application that can open .rpt files, then each CRStartup.exe will start a separate crw64.exe. That’s why multiple windows are created.
  • It takes some time for crw64.exe to initialize. After one crw64.exe runs, i.e. a report tab is opened, then the other reports will be opened in this same window. Sometimes two crw64.exe finish initializing at the same time, so they will be opened in separate windows.

There are two ways to avoid useless windows to be opened:

1. Open SAP Crystal Reports firstly. Then open all the reports at the same time.
2. Use Crystal Reports instead of Crystal Reports Launcher by default to open rpt files. In this way reports will be opened in separate windows. Be careful, there may be some issue if the .rpt file is created by "SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise". This kind of .rpt files are not supported in “SAP Crystal Reports 2020” (crw64.exe).

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