"Open With" - can number of apps be limited in list?

Any way to limit the number of applications that appear in the popup list when using the contextual menu item "Open With"? (It's not that I have duplicates showing.)
And... to be clear... this is not a "Get Info" > Open With question so as to bind a file type to a specific application, but just whether the list number can be reduced.
This has been bothering me for years, but since occasionally when the system is (apparently) searching for all of the most cryptic of apps that could possibly open a file the Finder does a SPOD and then the Finder crashes... I thought I'd finally post this question.
I've taken the time (over the years) to rebuild LaunchServices (via Onyx in my case) and trash cache files (via LeopardCacheCleaner)(i.e. com.apple.LaunchServices-0140.csstore and com.apple.LaunchServices-014nnn.csstore) but still the number of apps is problematic.
I even opened the LaunchServices preference files and looked at them in TextWrangler, but I don't see how the list can be limited to say... only 10 apps appearing.
Again... it is not that I'm showing duplicates, it's just that there are a lot of apps that I would never even remotely consider using to open a specific file.
And I've also read this thread...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2514597&tstart=60
...as well as others.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Message was edited by: RonL

*Launch Services* builds the list of applications that can open a particular file type from information that the applications provide. If an application indicates it can open the file type then it is listed. Once the application is registered, the system doesn't need to search the applications, it just looks at the LS database - rebuilding the database can clean up some issues, but apparently you have already done that.

Similar Messages

Since yesterday all my usual .xls files will not open (Office for Mac 2011). Can open .xlxs files. Default 'open with' is Microsoft Excel.app. No software updates done. Have repaired disc permissions. What next?

Since yesterday all my usual .xls files will not open (Office for Mac 2011). CAN open .xlxs files. Default 'open with' is Microsoft Excel.app. No software updates done yesterday or the day before (or maybe a Silverlight or an Acrobat one by accident?). Have repaired disc permissions. HHD name is still same as it always was. What next? Thanks
PS I'm not a great techie so assume I don't know what you're talking about!

You may need to rebuild permissions on your user account. To do this,boot to your Recovery partition (holding down the Command and R keys while booting) and open Terminal from the Utilities menu. In Terminal, type: ‘resetpassword’ (without the ’s), hit return, and select the admin user. You are not going to reset your password. Click on the icon for your Macs hard drive at the top. From the drop down below it select the user account which is having issues. At the bottom of the window, you'll see an area labeled Restore Home Directory Permissions and ACLs. Click the reset button there. The process takes a few minutes. When complete, restart.
Repair User Permissions

HT201304 Can I remove apps from my purchase list

Can I remove apps from my purchase list..?

No. You can hide them from the Purchases section of the iTunes Store through iTunes on a computer (or your iPad if it's still running iOS 5):
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4919
but there's no way to remove apps permanently, nor can they be removed nor hidden in the Purchase History.
Regards.

Open with only shows 10 Apps

Dear Community,
the open with menu does not show all apps that are installed on my iPhone4. There seems to be a limitation to 10 apps and I don't find a setting to configure which apps are shown. I'm running iOS5, but there was the same issue with iOS4.
Do you experience the same problem? Is there a solution? Is it a bug or a feature?
Thanks for your support

Yes, you can only see 10 apps in Open with.... It is not configurable. As the device is working to spec, there's not really a "solution". Sorry.

Open With in Photo Viewer app gives hundreds of NoUIEntrypoints-DesignMode

I am developing a store app and have a button on my app (Open With) in the same way as the Windows 8.1 Photo app. This works fine, however, I now get hundreds of entries saying NoUKEntryPoints-DesignMode in the list which makes it take a long time to open.
This also happens in the Windows Photo App too.
Can anyone throw any light on this, I assume its something I have done in my app
Mal

I had over 1000 entries like the one below, any idea how these would have got there?
Is there an easy way to get rid of them other than deleting them one at a time?
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Extensions\ContractId\Windows.File\PackageId\App.affb54766.a057c.a4006.ab501.a844215cd7045_1.0.0.0_x86_NorthAmerica_8wekyb3d8bbwe]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Extensions\ContractId\Windows.File\PackageId\App.affb54766.a057c.a4006.ab501.a844215cd7045_1.0.0.0_x86_NorthAmerica_8wekyb3d8bbwe\ActivatableClassId]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Extensions\ContractId\Windows.File\PackageId\App.affb54766.a057c.a4006.ab501.a844215cd7045_1.0.0.0_x86_NorthAmerica_8wekyb3d8bbwe\ActivatableClassId\Designer.App.AppXw8h7jeq3kvshzrvace7ymrmnqrwmcgbg.mca]
"Vendor"="App.affb54766.a057c.a4006.ab501.a844215cd7045"
"Icon"="C:\\Users\\Mal\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\VisualStudio\\12.0\\Designer\\ShadowCache\\nrs5scah.3rl\\meexekxy.vfm\\Images\\XDesProc.Logo.png"
"DisplayName"="NoUIEntryPoints-DesignMode"
"Description"="XAML Designer"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Extensions\ContractId\Windows.File\PackageId\App.affb54766.a057c.a4006.ab501.a844215cd7045_1.0.0.0_x86_NorthAmerica_8wekyb3d8bbwe\ActivatableClassId\Designer.App.AppXw8h7jeq3kvshzrvace7ymrmnqrwmcgbg.mca\CustomProperties]
"SupportedFileTypes"=".jpg,.png,.arw,.pef,.erf,.nef,.orf,.cr2,.jpeg"
Mal

Webform that opens with auto number

I need a web form that opens with a 5 digit number auto assigned. Each new form will increase by one digit. When submitted it sends to mysql db. All connections between form and mysql have been made and are working. Just have not figured out how to open form with auto number. Any help would be appreciated.

The problem with your plan is that everytime a user, spambot or any other person or bot opens your form, a number gets generated. This might be an argument for generating the number outside the database, using even a simple text file to store the numbers as they accumulate.The alternative would be to use an auto_increment primary key in the database to generate the number. The problem with that approach is that your database will fill up with empty records that contain just the primary key.
I think that the best solution is to simply not do what you are trying to do. I think it's a bad plan.
If you were to use the database method, as soon as the page opens, run an insert query on the database to simply generate the number, then call the number from the database using either:
id = mysql_insert_id(); ----with the original, bad mysql connection
$dbh->lastInsertId() ----with a PDO connection
Then, after the form is filled out, use an update query with a where clause as so:
update mytable set name = '$name' (etc., etc.) WHERE id = '$id'
As already pointed out, using this method, your table will populate with many rows that contain just the key number because many users and spambots that open the form will not complete it, or your validation will reject them, but you could run a trigger on your database to purge these empty records automatically, or, if you don't know how to create a trgger, you can run a query that simply says:
DELETE from mytable WHERE somefield IS NULL AND timestamp > currenttime + 5 hours
(the above the the query logic, not the actual finished query. You wouldn't want to delete all empty records because you may delete some where the user is still filling out the form, that's why you would give it a few hours between creation time and delete time.)
So if you used the text file method, you would use the PHP fopen function to open the file, check for the last created number, add the next number to the list, and echo that number on your form. You would run this script at the top of your page.
But I would really think hard about whether you really need to generate the number before the filled out form is submitted. Maybe you do, but avoid it if you can.

When i want to open a file with "Open With" appears the same apps duplicated or quadruplicated

Hi eveyone. I need a fix on this. I´m running my MBA with 10.8.3 and in my donwload folder i have some files to check. Some .pdf, some .doc and so on. The issue i´m having is that when i try to open one of this files with the right button "Open With" instruction, all the available apps, appears at least duplicated and in some cases, 5 times. How i fix this bug. Please advice. Thanks.

I have the same with Preview and Word. Only way to get rid of it is when you restart your Macbook.

Why do I need to activate (with serial number) the apps when opening??

It is asking me if I want to initiate the 309 days trial version?? I am logged in on my Creative Cloud Accound with full license to all Apps!! 1. I have tried to log in and log out of my creative cloud and restart my iMac.
tnx

Aperture upgrade won't open with serial number

I have a retail license for aperture version 2.1 with the serial numbers on the jacket for the cd. Several times after upgrades the new version will ask for my name and serial number. The latest upgrade to 3.4.5 tells me that my serial number is invalid. Any suggestions?

Thank you so much for your reply but I want to apologize for wasting your time with this question. I was making a "rookie" mistake by using my cd jacket information from version 2.1. After reading your reply I looked further into my cd's and found the version 3.0 cd with the info I needed on the jacket. The correct serial number works fine with the upgrade.

How can i delete apps from the purchased list?

i have apps from like a while ago, and i deleted them, but with apples new "purchased" feature, you are able to see everything.
How do i delete them???

HI,
If you're talking about making changes to your Purchase History... You can't...
If you mean Deleting Apps... See here:
How do I remove an application from my device?
Select your device on the left side of the iTunes window.
Click the Applications tab.
Select Sync applications.
Click the Selected applications button.
Deselect the applications you wish to remove.
Click Apply.

Can you change "Open With" List TITLES?

When I right-click on a photo or something, then go down to "Open With" to choose which app to open it with, CS4 has made an obscenely long title somehow taking up the whole desktop. It looks like nonsense after it says CS4. All I need it to say at the most is Adobe CS4, or just be like CS2.
Anyone know how to change this mess?
Thanks!

Yay! I fixed it!
This is what I did: I went into Finder>Apps> Adobe CS4 (folder)> Right-Click on CS4.app> Show Package Contents> Contents> Open info.plist
Then 6-lines down it stated what was in the "open with" string, so I removed it, restarted, and Voilá!
Nice and clean.

"Open With" duplication from Tiger

Whenever i use the non-default app to open something, by choosing "Open With," both my Leopard apps and the apps on my Tiger drive come up.
With an app like Gimp, it simply appears twice. I believe the first occurrence is the correct one, but sometimes I choose the Tiger app and, of course, in general, nothing happens.
I have renamed some of the Leopard apps with a "-l" but I wonder if there is a simpler solution?
Since this Leopard is based on the previous Tiger install, many of these apps have the same name, and some of the Tiger versions actually run, but it is a bit of a nuisance.
Is there a way to restrict the "Open With" to only the Leopard HD?
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

baltwo wrote:
Try this. Unmount the Tiger volumes, run this in the Terminal.app, restart, and see if the problem's solved.
If so, leave the Tiger volume unmounted until you want to boot into it.
Thanks for the reply.
The Tiger volume is a separate partition on my external drive that has TM.
I know I can unmount a partiton as well as an entire drive.
I was hoping for a less drastic solution, like when I mouse over the app's name that the path would show up. Right-clicking opens the app just like left-clicking it, so that does not help. Many of the apps like FireFox have the version number embedded into the name, and the Leopard versions are newer, but a few do not have such indication, and it's those few that I would like to tag somehow.
I suppose I could change their names in Tiger rather than in Leopard.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

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.
(53277)

Is there a way to remove items from "Open With" list?

I have an interesting dilemma that I have not yet found an answer to in all of my internet/discussion forum searches. Maybe I'm asking the wrong questions or searching in the wrong places, but I've given up and now have to post the question in hopes there's an answer out there.
My issue is that whenever I want to use the "Open With" feature for an image/jpeg file, the list of choices is massive! Looking at it now, it lists over 30 applications, but at most I would only ever want to open this type of file in one of maybe four applications.
Starting off, I used to have Parallels on my computer. Have since purchased VMWare Fusion 4 and now use that as my virtual machine to run Windows for some of my design work. As far as I know, I had removed ALL of Parallels from my computer when I uninstalled the app. I followed all of the instructions in the uninstall process, but there seems to be something left behind.
It may seem that mentioning that wouldn't have anything to do with the "Open With" function, but here is a screen shot to show what happens whenever I right-click an image file:
http://www.virtuosocreative.com/apple/openwith1.jpg
Most of the time, if I right click the image, it'd be to open in Photoshop or Set as Desktop. On occasion I have had to open a jpeg file in Illustrator, but that's it.
For some reason, there are still Parallels applications showing on the "Open With" list, even though it was uninstalled and removed from my computer. But like I said earlier, it looks like I missed something.
In addition, although I am not logged into Windows or have Fusion running in the background, the "Open With" list includes all of the suggested Windows apps as well. why???
As much as I appreciate there being such an abundance of options to choose from, this gets extremely annoying when using the feature and I wanted to see if there was any way to modify this list.
More than anything, I really want to get rid of all the Parallels extras that are left on my system. But also, I wanted to see if there was a setting to tweak so that whenever I click on "Open With" on my Mac, it'll only list applications that are my Mac applications and nothing through Fusion or Parallels or anything else. And to take it a step further, it'd be nice to shorten the list to only applications I would personally use for opening a jpeg file. (i.e. Preview (default), Photoshop, Illustrator, Safari).
My system is a 2010 iMac i5 2.8GHz/8GB RAM. Lion OS X 10.7.3
Thanks!

The Open With menu is built by LaunchServices which collects the information from each app as to what it says it can open. VMWare appears to be registering every app to open jpegs.
You might try rebuilding the LaunchServices database. I believe this command still works in Lion. Or, you could use a utility like OnyX to call it:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

My tpl file are no longer opening with TextEdit but with Stickies...Why?

Hello,
The strangest thing just happened and it must be a coincidence or some sort of glitch. I recently tried an LCD monitor on my Mac (which incidentally I just found out first hand why NOT to buy inexpensive LCD monitors). I disconnected it, hooked up my Sony CRT again and restarted. Everything seemed fine but when I tried to open some files with the .tpl extension they opened Stickies but did not even display any text.
A while ago I had gone to the Get Info of a tpl file and set all files with this extension to open using TextEdit. Until now that has always worked fine. When I try to do the same thing again it keeps reverting back to Stickies as the default. I am able to change an individual tpl file but can not make the global change. I dumped my finder preferences but that did not help.
Does anyone know how to set this or how to correct the glitch that is not allowing me to make this change?

Here is an interesting twist. Before I do as you suggest let me throw this out to you.
The tpl files are part of a php forum package. I have a clean copy of the forum so I can reference it and I work off a copy. I decided to take a look at the tpl files in the original folder. Not only are they all showing TextEdit as the app to open with but they are showing TextEdit in the list with (default) next to it.
When I look in the folder that contains the copy, which I am working with and editing, those files show Stickies (default) and do not show TextEdit in the list. I took a look around my drive for other rograms that also use tpl files and they were all fine. So for some reason it would seem that the problem is just inside the one templates folder and nowhere else. I was able to select all the tpl files, then control click and select Open With..., selected TextEdit, closed the Get Info window and all the tple files in the folder were changed. When I go back or restart and look they keep this setting even though TextEdit is not listed as a recommended or default app.
So even though this is working and I can open my files I am bothered by this and the fact that the same file type (same extension) presents a different list and handles this differently from other files of the same type in another location.
Does this make sense? Ever see this happen before? Even though I was able to make the change do you still recommend that I reset the LaunchServices database and re-install the COMBO update?

"Open With" - can number of apps be limited in list?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for