Removing Items Finder Open With Menu

I'm looking for a way to delete items from the Open With menu in Finder/File/Open With. On my PowerBook there are over fifty items in this menu when selecting a JPEG file.
Maybe there is away.
I'm using a Panther drive 10.3.9
Photoscene

Photoscene-
I'm not sure this addresses your exact situation or not, but the following link:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031215144430486#comments
suggests a method for removing items from the "open with" menu that shouldn't be there.
I have NOT tried the above, so use the usual cautions (backup beforehand, etc.).
Good luck,
Alan
cube Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Remove Items from "Open With" Menu

I installed Photoshop CS2 last week and it added a ton of unnecessary and unwanted items in the "Open With" menu in Tiger...
Sorry that image is so large, but imagine having to look at that on a regular basis. Can I remove all of that crap?! It's slowed Tiger's performance considerably.

If you are never going to use them, you can simply trash and restart. Or you can do what I (and many others) have done and leave the ones you do use and zip the rest. They are here:
"/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS/Samples/Droplets"
There's one folder for Photoshop, and second for ImageReady.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Removing Items from "Open With" Menu

I have installed Adobe CS2 awhile back on both my computers. Since I have have done so. Selecting the "Open with" on a selected image file brings up a list of maybe 40 options. Constrain to 200 Pixels and all this other crap. Honestly, it's screwed up a few of my files by accidentally clicking on them. The program will open.. run the script and close. I just want help on getting these items of my list. without removing the apps.
Thanks alot!

Mike has the right of it. What I did was to make a list of all the droplets and store it in the droplets folder, then zip all of them except one I actually sometimes use. There is also a folder full of droplets for Image Ready. Should I ever want to see what's there for some batch processing I can consult the list, unzip, and use. Then toss.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

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

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!

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.
;~)

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

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

Duplicate Items in Open With Menu

Whenever I right / command click to get the 'open with' dialog the list has duplicates of most applications in the list. This happened after I upgraded to Leopard. Any ideas how to fix it?

There are several possible reasons this happens.
One is that you have different versions of the apps on your drive, or that you have other drives mounted, each with a copy of the apps. Each instance you see of an app is actually a different one, & thus you have a choice of which one to launch.
Another is that the launch services database is corrupted & needs to be rebuilt. Several third party utilities make this easy to do without resorting to the command line. If you use one for this purpose, make sure it has been updated for Leopard compatibility. Two such utilities are Cocktail (shareware) & Onyx (freeware).

Open with menu not showing icons

Hi, since i installed Mavericks i've been experiencing some issues, and the one i need to solve right know is this:
In this example is only with media players but it happens with other apps too, both system and non-system apps. I've tried this command:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain user;killall Finder;echo "Open With has been rebuilt, Finder will relaunch"
that is used to delete duplicated items on "Open With" menu but it doesn't solve this Icon issue.. I also deleted com.apple.LaunchServices.plist from ~/Library/Preferences/ and it didn't helped. I don't know what to do anymore.
Please help me out with this, i don't want to do a fresh install again.

OS X does that constantly. If you click anywhere away from the contextual menu to close it, then perform the same right click, then they'll show.

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.

Multiple items in "Open with..." Finder menu

Why I see Evernote.app item in my "Open with..." menu in the Finder multiple times? Any chance to remove it and keep it just once?
Thanks.

For those who are interested I have an article on how to clean up the Open With menu here [http://idoitonamac.blogspot.com/2014/03/keeping-open-with-menu-clean-on-os-x.htm l] and I also have made an application to perform all the tasks discussed in the article.
The application (CoW) is available for download here [https://github.com/spaquet/CleanOpenWith/releases]
Hope this helps keeping a clean Open With menu

Help. Need to remove item from the "open with" menu

Does anyone know how I can remove an item from the "open with" menu?

You could try removing the quicktime .pkg files from the receipts folder in the root library.
The system has to go somewhere to determine eligible applications it can use to open a file.
Each application would contain its base settings in its receipts file.
Once you delete the receipt you should delete the application and reinstall it.
The reinstall will write a new receipts file.
The receipts file is used by your system when it repairs disk permissions.
The system does not just add a setting.
For example if you take a .png file and click on it and look at what can open it you may get a long list.
If you choose "other" from the get info "open with" menu and have acrobat reader installed in applications, it will show as an application you can choose.
That application, however, is not in the drop down list.
If you choose acrobat reader and apply it to the file type, it will show as the default.
If you then choose another application in the list and apply, Acrobat Reader disappears from the list.
The system only shows files in the list that advertise to the system that they can read the file type.
You have a system which is populating the list with legitimate programs that are compatible with the advertised file type.
It is reading that advertisement for the quicktime application somewhere.
The configuration is written to each file individually, you can choose to have a single file associated with a particular application or have it apply to all files of that type.
Check in Spotlight for a copy of the application in another location.

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.

Removing Items Finder Open With Menu

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