June 18, 2007
Trim down the Finder’s Open With menu
Posted Jun. 18, ’07, 9:16 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Tips
I have many many many applications on my MacBook. Every once in a while I go through and clean out demos that have expired, or apps I don’t need any more, but sometimes vestiges of those programs remain in the most unlikely of places.
Take, for example, the Finder’s “Open With…” contextual menu item. If you right click on a file, “Open With…” gives you the option to open the document with something other than its default associated application. Thing is, oftentimes you’ll see apps in there that have long been excised from your computer. What gives?
Well, much as we love OS X, there are always some glitches here and there. But don’t worry: you can still clean up those lists by following these steps from Apple:
And that oughta do it. Now your list of applications is limited to only those programs that are on your computer—how useful.
- 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.
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Thanks, that's useful.
Would be handy if there was a way of checking or unchecking which app were available in the Open With menu.
You've got that right, Juno... when I right mouse on a PNG file, for example, I get 38 choices for "Open with...", 21 of which are Photoshop .exe files (droplets, I suspect).
And that's after deleting the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist file. Grrr.
Still, thanks for the hint!
This does not work for me much because I have a huge list of OPEN WITH Apps which I have. In the OPEN WITH menu I have multiple copies of Photoshop, Preview, Constrain ....., Make JPEG ...., Quicktime Player, Illustrator and many more. How do I get rid of these? Help!