Thanks! That did it. I didn't find this in the documentation when I searched without know where to look.

I've understood that you did set the "Operation to perform on double-click" to "Open" and it didn't help. So are you saying now, that you were not even able to find the option?

It's in Preferences > Panels, as the documentation shows:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_pref_panels

Screen-shot posted
Where do I find the "referenced option'?

@mfoley: If you set the referenced option to "Open", WinSCP will "open" files on double-click, instead of "editing" them.

If you have different experience, please post some screenshots (or even screencast) documenting your problem.

I have just downloaded version 5.21.6. This topic is a bit old, but I haven't come across anything more recent.
Like the OP, I am trying to set my WinSCP to default to opening instead of editing files. The respondent replied "check documentation" and provided a link which reads, "Operation to perform on double-click to select what should WinSCP do". But I don't see where that sets any default. I find nothing on my WinSCP menu, sub-menus, settings, options, etc. for this setting. I can right-click on the file and specify "Open", but how to I set "Open" to the default action?
I've clicked on 'Help' and searched the webpage that comes up, but still find nothing on this (perhaps it's buried under some other topic).
So, step-by-step, how do I do this?

Please see documentation:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_pref_panels#double-click

For some reason whenever I try to open a file using WinSCP it opens an editor instead of the actual file. I know I must have it set to an edit function but how do I change it to be able to open the files as normal?