I can’t imagine how fouled up your system would have to be to have Premiere Pro save Encore files. It just isn’t possible as far as I know unless you have some serious registry problems.
It is not that I don’t believe you, I just don’t think that Premiere Pro has the necessary code to save Encore files. It is more likely that your file associations in Windows have gotten fouled up.
Steven
https://www.stevengotz.com