"Open with" finder menu -- how to customize

When I choose "Open with" from the Finder's "File" menu (or from the contextual menu). I get the spinning beachball for 10-20 seconds while the finder searches EVERY hard disk for every possible program a file can be opened with.
Isn't there some way to configure the possible programs? I'd like to permanently eliminate some program choices, and and also limit the search for programs to my startup disk only. I'm sure that doing so would significantly speed up the search time.

No. It's handled automatically by the OS via the LaunchServices database. You can reset the database as follows:
Rebuild LaunchServices Database
For Tiger users
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt paste in the following command in its entirety:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServic es.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Press RETURN.
For Leopard users
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt paste in the following command in its entirety:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Press RETURN.

Similar Messages

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.

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.

I tried to export an iMovie to quicktime and got this pop up message, "file is already open with write permission" How do I resolve this. thans

I tried to export an iMovie to quicktime and got this pop up message, "file is already open with write permission" How do I resolve this. thans

Turn off Time Machine before you open iMovie. It's a semi-known issue right now.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17032254#17032254

How do we add apps to the 'Open With' contextual menu?

After I updated to Mavericks, all of the apps, except the Apple ones, were blown away (eg. Word and Excel in my VM).
How do I put them back?

'Open With > Other' would not show the apps in my VM. I tried.
I tried something different. I left Word open in my Parallels (Vista) VM and ignored it for a while to see if Maverics would pick it up eventually.
It did.
It seems like that it takes some time for Maverics to find the apps in a VM before we can use it in the 'Open With' menu.

How Do I Edit My 'Open With' Contextual Menu?

When I right click on an image file and select Open With I get a long list of options. Many of them are .exe files and look like actions (Make GIF 64 colors.exe for example).
How can I edit this list? Some information I found mentioned editing the info.plist file in Photoshop, so I'm sure it's a PS issue.
Thanks
Nicholas
[Photoshop CS4 Extended - Master Collection, MacBook Pro, OS X (10.6.1), Ikea Desk, Takamine Acoustic ]

Exactly - that's what I thought. Most of those seemed to have disappeared since I nervously uninstalled CS2 (I upgraded from 2 to 4), although I've heard that things can creep back as you use the apps again. I also renamed the plist file.
However it would be nice to be able to edit what appears there. I'll give that link a shot - thanks for that.

Two "Adobe Reader" menu items in "Open with" context menu

Is there a simple remedy to the problem of multiple occurrences of "Adobe Reader" in the context menu?
That is, in the Finder, on Mac OS 10.6.8, I see two instances of "Adobe Reader" in the "Open with..." context menu...
thank you in advance.

Hi!
thanks for the response! I would be happy to find the root cause of this issue (or at least find and remove the data in the facility called Launch Services.
I have no additional binaries of Adobe Reader on the disk. One only.
I think there is some crufty data somewhere, which Launch Services is reading and hence displaying the erroneous menu item.
I suspect the Adobe Reader installer is somehow responsible for this. This was a clean and newly built system disk.
I have been reading the following:
How to rebuild the LaunchServices database
Launch Services Framework Release Notes for Mac OS X v10.5
Rebuild Launch Services Database
Now, I tried resetting the "global Launch Services database".
I must restart Finder to see if this was successful. Until later...

Home folder do not appear in the finder menu - How can I get it back?

Keywords:
Mac OS X 10.4.11
FileVault: On
System: Restarted
Home folder: still somewhere in the hard drive but not yet in my account
Initial bad manipulation: home folder > get info > ownership & permissions > you can > No Access
<and> Owner > No Acces
Hello all,
Here is my problem:
Basically, I do not have the home folder in my account when I log in.
Hopefully I remember well what have led to this consequence.
To begin, in the finder menu for the home folder I opened the get info pop-up. Then, under "Ownership & Permissions" I have replaced "Read & Write" by "No Access" both in "you can" and under "Details - Owner".
Per consequence, I couldn't read a document in this folder. Hence, I've tried to to go backward and change the "No Access" to "Read & Write" but it couldn't work.
Then, I restarted the session - but because I had filevault turned on - it screwed.
Then, when I logged in back I got this message:
"The home folder for user "XX" is not located in the usual place or cannot be accessed.
The home or users folder may have been moved or deleted. If the home folder is located or the network, he server may be unavailable temporarily. If you continue to have problems, see your administrator."
Do anyone have already encountered a similar problem?
Thanks a lot,
/

HFG,
One more thing, from this other admin account (good one) I went in terminal and >I observed that the folder that I'm having trouble with does not have the "d" letter.
Basically, it's written:
"-rwxr-xr-x 1 bobip bouba 23701154564 Nov 12 15:31 lol.sparseimage"
What you think? Souldn't be coded as "d_rwx...
Remember what I wrote earlier:
A FileVault account instead puts all of its data into an encrypted disk image - in fact an encrypted sparseimage. If FileVault is enabled, the home folder for that account no longer directly contains the Documents, Pictures, and other data subfolders - all that the home folder really contains is a single file named username.sparseimage. When you log in to the FileVault account and give your password, this disk image mounts and you can access your files.
That "lol.sparseimage" does contain all your data, but it is a file and not a folder, which is why its permissions start with a "-" and not a "d". It is a "disk image file," very similar to the .dmg files that you download from the internet. When a disk image file is opened it will mount a "virtual" disk volume, which behaves very much like a real external disk volume.
Let's call the shortname of your FileVault account "fv" as Robert did. So as I wrote earlier, when you are logged out, your file structure is going to look like:
HD>Users>fv>fv.sparseimage
When you log in, the name of the lol folder is changed to .fv, with the lol.sparseimage file still inside. The leading period hides it from finder. But more importantly, a "virtual disk" named "fv" mounts and opens, which contains all your stuff. The "fv" disk icon is hidden from Finder and doesn't show on the desktop, but it is there.
The mounted disk volume "fv" has access permissions just as a file or folder does, and looking back at what you did, *I think you changed the permissions on that mounted volume*, and not on the sparseimage file that holds it - you would not have seen the sparseimage file from Finder. If you did this then the permissions for both the HD>Users>fv folder and also for the sparseimage file were probably OK all along. I'm not sure what you've now done to them, which is why I advised backing up before doing anything.
So to sum up - there are three different entities that need to have the proper permission structure for the FileVault account to work properly:
1. The folder "fv" in /Users (assuming you are logged out. If logged in it would be .fv)
2. The *sparseimage file* "fv.sparseimage", which is inside that fv folder.
3. The *disk volume* 'fv" that mounts when the fv sparseimage file is opened and the correct FileVault password is given.
I tried creating a test filevault account to check these permissions, and you could try to reproduce what I found. My suggestion in trying to fix things is to do it from Finder, not from Terminal.
I would
1) Log out of the FileVault account,
2) From the other admin account, [enable the root user (Tiger)|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528?viewlocale=en_US], and then log in as root.
Then from the root account:
1) Do a Get Info on the folder /Users> fv. Set the owner to fv, with Read only access, set Group to fv with "No Acess" and set Others to "No Access.' Do not click Apply to enclosed items.
2) Do a Get Info on the file fv.sparseimage. Set the owner to fv, with Read and Write access, set Group to fv with No Access, and set Others to "No Access.' Do not click Apply to enclosed items.
3. Double-click the fv.sparseimage file (and cross your fingers!). When asked for a password, give the password from the FileVault account, not your current root password. Look on the Desktop for a new "fv" disk icon.
(Your stuff is in there - if you have ANY type of backup storage, even a thumb drive, you could double-click the fv disk icon and copy the most valuable files somewhere else)
Do a Get Info on the fv disk icon, and set the owner to "unknown" with Read and Write Access, the Group to "unknown" with No Access, and Others to No Access. Most importantly, *check the box for "Ignore ownership on this volume"*. Do not click Apply to enclosed items.
So again, the three Get Infos (as seen from the root account) on my fv folder, my fv.sparseimage file, and my fv mounted volumes look like this:
!http://i34.tinypic.com/krf4h.jpg!
The important permissions are those under "Details". Ignore the part that says "*You have*: No Access." ( You are root, and you actually do have access)
If all seems well, then right-click >eject the mounted fv disk icon on the desktop, log out of root, and try logging back into your Filevault account.

Open with contextual menu

My problem: When i select/highlight "Open with" option in the Finder Contextual Menu, then Finder quits. i.e. the open with menu doesn't even expand- just highlighting/hovering the cursor over it, causes Finder to crash.
This has been happening for quite some time.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks in advance
mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.9) 1.42 GHz, 512 MB RAM

The free Expander shouldn't have installed any contextual menu items. Look in the "Contextual Menu Items" folders in your "Library" folder, and in the one in "Library" at the top level of your disk. If there are any files there, try moving them out, then logout, then login, and see if you still have problems.

Open With Context Menu acting up

It seems as if using Time machine allows old versions of applications to appear in the "open with" menu.
Is that sensible?
How can I turn it off?
I don't really want to mistakenly open files in old versions of applications....

Do you see it if you click Choose default program..., then expand the Other Programs section?
If not, can you Browse to the Photoshop.exe file on your hard disk and add it?
-Noel

HELP!!!! Accidently change all (.app) to open with Finder!

I don't know how i did it but now ALL the Applications try to open with the finder.
How can i change it back?
Please help!
imac G4 (15in. Flat Panel) Mac OS X (10.1.x)

Move the files mentioned in this article under Application and File Bindings to the desktop, log out, and then log back in. Try opening an application again.
(12116)

Please help with small but annoying 'Open With' finder problem

hello, when I CTRL click a file in finder and select 'Open With' a huge list of apps appear and the same app apperars multiple times. e.g toast appears about 7 times Please have a look at the image below as a picture can say a 1000 words.
[img]http://xs62.xs.to/pics/06016/toomanyapps.jpg.xs.jpg[/img]
iMac G4 1.25ghz 20 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

You should be able to fix that by rebuilding the LaunchServices database.
I use OnyX (Maintenance tab, Reset section).
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11582

Excel opens when i command a .csv file to open with numbers. How can i get numbers to be my default application?

I am sharing a Macbook Pro with my girlfriend. She runs Microsoft Office Excel for her work and I perfer Numbers in my work. Logged into my user account, I command an email attachment (.csv) to open with numbers. Excel launches every time. I can open numbers first. Excel still launches and opens the .csv document. i tried to trash the excel in my user account, no go. any suggestions?

Hi joric,
In Finder, right click or control click on the document and Open With > Numbers. You may have to navigate from Other...
Or, a permanent solution:
In Finder, click once on a .csv document to select it. Get Info (command i) Towards the bottom of that info window, is Open With. It probably shows Excel. Change it to Numbers. Again, you may have to navigate from Other... Then click on Change All.
I can open numbers first. Excel still launches and opens the .csv document.
Are you opening from within Numbers (File > Open)?
Regards,
Ian.

Photoshop cs5 not in "open with" context menu

I recently got version CS5 [12.1] of photoshop, installed 64 bit version of it. But the "open with " in right click context menu doesn't show photoshop among the listed programs. i tried reinstalling it but the problem is still there. Can anyone please help? I did 'Choose default pr ogram' and navigated to the Photoshop .exe for the 64bit version. (Default path is C:Program Files, Adobe.....) but photoshop doesn't come. nothing happens, the list of programs remains the same.

Do you see it if you click Choose default program..., then expand the Other Programs section?
If not, can you Browse to the Photoshop.exe file on your hard disk and add it?
-Noel

I use Earthlink mailbox, and I want my email links to open with Firefox, but they open with Internet Explorer; how to fix?

I am using Windows XP 2002 operating system; Earthlink mailbox program for email with AT&T Broadband.
I want to have Firefox as my default browser, but my email links open with Internet Explorer. I have followed the Firefox help page to set Firefox as my browser, but the problem remains.
Do you know how to fix this? Is it a problem with Earthlink?

I have Microsoft Outlook also with Firefox and can open just about every link, url, company page, etc via the email links. First, make sure you have noted the email as NOT JUNK so that the links are activated by Outlook. Second, Firefox needs to your default browser for the links to open in Firefox rather than IE. There are some links from Microsoft that may ignore the default and open in IE but not all anymore. I have a Sony laptop which ignores the default browser and opens all of its support information from its VAIO software loaded on the computer in IE. Besides that though, over 95% of my items will open in my default brwser selection, which is currently Firefox.
Go to this link to make sure Firefox is your default browser.
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/How+to+make+Firefox+the+default+browser?s=Make+Firefox+the+default+browser+&as=s
Or this link to make any browswer of your choice the default.
http://www.chami.com/tips/internet/043099I.html
Hope this helps.

"Open with" finder menu -- how to customize

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