How to edit a Finder "Open With" entry

How do I edit an "Open With" entry on the context menu in Finder? I have an application which updated recently and has added a rather long version number to the application name in the "Open With" entry for the app. I have run a command line which was given to me in these forums to update file-type associations and remove old apps from the list but the version number on this app seems to be resisting efforts to be cleaned up. I am guessing there is something in a PList somewhere but I don't know where.
Any help would be appreciated.

Use an encrypted disk image or a third-party method. Placing the password in the keychain will automatically unlock the image when your Mac OS X account is active.
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Clean up Finder "Open With" contextual menu in Yosemite

How do I clean up the Finder "Open With" contextual menu in Yosemite? I have several duplicate and obsolete entries in mine. There are several articles out there that show how to do this for previous versions of Mac OS X, but the instructions don't line up with what I see in Yosemite.
Also, the entries I have in the menu are from a version of Windows through a version of VMware Fusion, both of which versions I haven't used in a long while. I did a clean install of Yosemite this morning (on an erased disk) so I'm curious how the menu was populated. Did it somehow get inherited through the iCloud Keychain?
Thanks for any help!

As seen here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305627
*Mac OS X: Clearing the Finder "Open With" contextual menu*
Ever wondered how to "clear" the Finder's Open With... contextual menu choices of any extraneous or older applications? (This is the menu that appears when you control-click or "right-click" a document icon.)
If your Open With... menu is filled with too many choices to easily scroll through, you can remove the less-commonly used choices. These steps will clear the list except for the most current applications that can open your document.
From the Finder Go menu, choose Home.
Open the Library folder in the Home window.
Open the Preferences folder.
Find com.apple.LaunchServices.plist.
Rename "com.apple.LaunchServices", such as to "com.apple.LaunchServices.old", or move it to the Trash.
The next time you use the Open With.... contextual menu in the Finder, only current applications will be listed. Some items may return if the application that controls them adds itself back to the list.

Weird Finder 'Open With' menu problem

I have a new Lion MBP -- I did not use the migration asssistant from my old MBP instead I installed apps manually - now the weird thing is that the Finder 'Open with' context based menu includes apps that were installed on my old MBP that are not (and have never been) installed on the new computer!!
How did that happen... anyone have any ideas and how I can get rid of these 'ghost' entries.
Thanks
Rich

Simon,
Resetting Launch Services, by Dr. Smoke should be helpful.
;~)

Clearing the Finder "Open With" contextual menu ?

After the install I now have duplicates of all the stuff I used to have in the open with menu.
Like VLC and then under it VLC (version number).
How do I clear it?

As seen here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305627
*Mac OS X: Clearing the Finder "Open With" contextual menu*
Ever wondered how to "clear" the Finder's Open With... contextual menu choices of any extraneous or older applications? (This is the menu that appears when you control-click or "right-click" a document icon.)
If your Open With... menu is filled with too many choices to easily scroll through, you can remove the less-commonly used choices. These steps will clear the list except for the most current applications that can open your document.
From the Finder Go menu, choose Home.
Open the Library folder in the Home window.
Open the Preferences folder.
Find com.apple.LaunchServices.plist.
Rename "com.apple.LaunchServices", such as to "com.apple.LaunchServices.old", or move it to the Trash.
The next time you use the Open With.... contextual menu in the Finder, only current applications will be listed. Some items may return if the application that controls them adds itself back to the list.

How to edit the find-and-replace dialog in Dreamweaver 8

For over 13 years I have been a happy user of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. And I still see no reason to use any other program for editting PHP.
However, 1 thing has been bugging me for years. In the find-and-replace dialog there is a select "Find in". The options are in a dropdown.
I want this select to be a multiselector (not in functionality, but just so I don't need to click to get the dropdown, but just one click to select).
I read in the help at 'Customizing the appearance of dialog boxes' at point 4
On your disk, find the appropriate HTM file in the Configuration/Objects, Configuration/ Commands, or Configuration/Behaviors folder.
I've been searching but can not find the code for that dialog, althou it should be easy. Also did a search for that 'save' image, because once I find that, I can find this form, but its not in the macromedia folder.
how to edit the find-and-replace dialog in Dreamweaver 8?

It's looks less like an image and more like a form drop list to me.
Yes its a dropdown list. But to find the code for that select I tried to find the htm file that code is on by searching for the save-image which is also on that page (next to the yellow folder). I did a search on all folders in c:/programfiles/macromedia and that image is not in there. If I could find the image name, I could search the code for that and should find that htm (or javascript) which is outputting it, then the select must be near to that.
I also searched the code for the various texts on the page and got many hits, but not from the dialog page. I can't search dll files, so maybe thats where that code is in.

Finder Open With Lists Some Applications Twice

My finder>open with menu lists some applications twice.
A minor annoyance I'd like to fix.
Example: If I choose a JPG file and go to "open with" the following programs are listed twice: Firefox, QuickTime, RealPlayer & Safari. Some other programs are listed once.
There are NOT two versions of these programs on my computer, but there is the System folder from my old Mac.
Is there a way to fix this little problem?
Macbook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8) 17 inch

The mac finder will pick up applications anywhere on your hard drive when you do the "open with".
If you aren't using your old System Folder you could create a .zip archive of it and remove the original Folder.
I'd be open to hearing other approaches, but this will work.

TA24770 Clear Finder "Open With" menu with VMware Fusion 5

Hi.
I had same problem of duplicate Apps showing on Finder "Open With" contextual menu.
After following instructions on this link http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24770?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US all Mac applications where OK, but could not see VMware Fusion Virtual Machine applications in Finder contextual menu.
So follow these steps:
Shut down virtual machine.
Open virtual machine settings.
Go to Default Applications.
Click "Restore Applications".
Start virtual machine.
This should reset contextual menu in Finder with the VMware Fusion 5 applications.
Mac OS X 10.8.3
VMware Fusion 5.0.3

Great, post tip, thanks!

Cannot create new folders on desktop. Cannot drag new items onto desktop. Desktop in Finder opens with Terminal. Not sure if this has anything to do with upgrading to Mavericks but I need help if anyone has ideas. Thank you.

I can no longer create new folders on my desktop. The option to do that is now light gray on the drop down menu and can't be selected.
I cannot drag new items onto desktop any longer either.
The Desktop in Finder opens with Terminal.
Folders and items on Desktop open and work normally.
Not sure if this has anything to do with upgrading to Mavericks but I need help if anyone has ideas.
Thank you.

Take these steps if the cursor changes from an arrow to a white "prohibited" symbol when you try to move an icon on the Desktop.
Sometimes the problem may be solved just by logging out or rebooting. Try that first, if you haven't already done it. Otherwise, continue.
Select the icon of your home folder (a house) in the sidebar of a Finder window and open it. The Desktop folder is one of the subfolders. Select it and open the Info window. In the General section of the window, the Kind will be either Folder or something else, such as Anything.
If the Kind is Folder, uncheck the box marked Locked. Close the Info window and test.
If the Kind is not Folder, make sure the Locked box is not checked and that you have Read & Write privileges in the Sharing & Permissions section. Then close the Info window and do as follows.
Back up all data.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo Desktop
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You should get a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”). Quit Terminal.
Relaunch the Finder.
If the problem is now resolved, and if you use iPhoto, continue.
Quit iPhoto if it's running. Launch it while holding down the option key. It will prompt you to select a library. Choose the one you want to use (not the Desktop folder.)

Edit Finder Open With Menu

I just went to open an image from the Finder and noticed the Open With Context Menu was loaded with duplicate entries of the various applications that can open an image. Is there a way to edit this so only the current version of each application shows instead of every version installed via updates?
An example is Opera. There are 3 versions listed in the Open With Context Menu when I right click on a .swf file.

rebuild your launch services database.
run the following terminal command
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Contextual menu in finder "open with" has multiple entries of same apps

When I use the contextual menu (right click) on documents, the menu point "open with..." shows multiple entries of the same programs. For example when right clicking a PDF, there appears 5 times neoOffice, 2 times Preview, 6 times ... any other application that you could use to open the document. This occurs on all user accounts, only that the multiplicity of listings of the apps is different. So it can't be a preferences problem on my account. What else could be the cause?
This is quite annoying because the apps-list becomes very long and unusable.
Note: I have 2 internal start up disks with OS and apps installed, but only one mounted. That means, there cannot be a duplicate (triplicate...etc) copy of any app accessible at any time.
Thanks.

if I quit all running applications, it will be pretty hard to put anything in the Trash!
Are you being literal? Like quitting the Finder too? Or what bespeaks you?
Actually, I use Xupport to do that, but I think Onyx and several other Utilities include that option.

Windows 7 how to restore file type...can't find "open with"

windows 7
i clicked on the open with box and apparently changed alot of program shortcuts to exe files now when i click on the shortcut or the program, i get a fast flash of a dos box that says incorrectcommand line (i think)and i can't use those programs at all.some progs are avg,firefox,ccleaner,etc...thanks

Hi
Try doing System restore to the date when the unit was working fine.
Let us know how it goes!
"I work for HP."
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****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
Regards
Manjunath

How to remove application from Open With?

Hi,
I added by accident a wrong application to a file type in Finder. Now I would like to remove this entry from the files Open With list. How could this be done?
Thanks and best regards
Ralph

Is it just that specific document you want to open with another application or is it all documents of the same format?
#1 Hold down Ctrl key and choose Open with. Choose the application you want to open the document with. IF you want to always open this one document with another app then the pre-chosen one hold down both the CTRl and the Option key and choose application.
#2 When you want a certain format of documents to open with another application, let us say all .rtf should open with Pages instead of Textedit, select one rtf document and use Command (apple) key and I to get the information window for this document. Somewhere in the middle you can choose with which app. to open this document with and right beneath there is another button that gives you the opportunity to open all document of the same format with the same application.
Pardon my Swenglish, but I hope you are helped by this!

Finder Open With Menu

I'm trying to clean up a Parallels installation, I got tired of it locking up my system when shutting down the VM, any way it added a host of Windows Applications to the Open With Menu in Finder.
I've tried following a few older suggestions such as deleteing the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist from ~/LIbrary/Preferences folder, however this trick doesn't appear to have any affect on finder 10.5
So Im at a loss on how to clean this up...
Any help is greatly appreciated...
Thank yoiu

rebuild your launch services database.
run the following terminal command
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Finder "Open With" question & help

I should probably know this by now but recently I've noticed that when I use Finder to select a file and right click (ctrl click) on this file I have like 2 and 3 entries for every applcation that is available to open that file.
What is the proper proceedure for "rebuilding" whatever database ot table controls what apps are available? Will tools like Xupport & Yasu clean this out and rebuild it? What is it that I want to rebuild?
TIA,
Peter

You relly don't have to "rebuild" anything. The "Open With" menu will show you a list of all the applications on your system that can open the file. What you want to do (I think) is set the default application for that particular file type. To do this select "Get Info" instead of "Open with". The click the "flippy triangle" next to "Open With" in the "Get Info" window and choose the application you want to use as the default. Then click on the "Change All" button.

How do I rebuild the 'open with' contextual menus?

I'm running the latest version of OSX 10 Mountain Lion… the contextual menu 'open with' section shows multiple instances of the same programs, sometimes 6 or 8 of them. How can I rebuild the menu so that it shows only one copy of each program?

Rebuild LaunchServices Database
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt paste in the following command in its entirety:
find /System/Library/Frameworks -type f -name "lsregister" -exec {} -kill -seed -r \;
Press RETURN. Wait for the Terminal prompt to return after which you can quit the Terminal.

How to edit a Finder "Open With" entry

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