Cleaning "Open With"

N

nealt

Registered
The lists get bigger and bigger. Is there a way to delete or clean up the list? Does it have to be file type by file type?
Thanks
 
I do not know any way to do that. Why do you want to? The list of applications which can handle a certain type of file is helpful and convenient. If you compare the way Mac OS handles Open With against Windows, the method used by Windows is a lot more cumbersome. Mind you, Windows also has SendTo, which is similar to the Mac Open With.
 
Yes it does have to be filetype by filetype, its a contextual menu.

If things are nto openign in the correct program you can change the default for a filetype by doing 'Get Info' on one of those type of files, selecting the program you want them to open in and hitting 'change all'.

If you have files you need to open in multiple different programs, why not drag them to dock icons rather than use open with, maybe that suits you better.

I think the only way to 'clean' the open with menu is to uninstall programs. That said I really don't think most people use it enough to get irritated by this kind of thing, maybe yours is a special case.
 
The list can be hjelpful but gets very long. For instance every version of Firefox is listed. I believe even deleted applications are listed. I seem to remember that there wqas a preference file or a folder that one could delete that would allow the open with to rebuild.
 
I had another thought. There is a nice application which installs into the System Preferences. It is called "Default Apps". I believe you can dis-associate applications with a given file type with it. I use it myself as a lookup reference, but you can change settings.
 
nealt said:
Some are some are not.
Click to expand...
If they're installed, then they will show up in the menu -- not much you can do about that. If you don't want them showing up in the menu, then uninstall them.

So, after deleting the proper plist file, the apps that are not installed still appear in the "Open with" menu?
 
Can you post a screenshot of your "Open with..." menu, and maybe highlight the programs that are in the list that are no longer installed on your computer?
 
I just tried copying and pasting from the link I provided. There are a couple ">" where there shouldn't be any. Maybe that's why it didn't work for you?

Try this one.

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

It's a single line command.
 
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