Remove Unwanted Programs from Open with menu in Windows

When right-clicking a file, the Open with menu appears, showing a list of programs to open the file with. In the Open with dialog, when you browse to choose a program to open a file, the program entry is added to the Open with menu and the Open with dialog. Sometimes, you may end up add a program to the Open with list inadvertently, and wonder how to remove it from the menu.

This article explains how to remove unwanted entries from the Open with menu for a particular file type as well as for all file types. For the purposes of illustration, let’s take the case of .txt file type.

Contents

1. Remove unwanted entries from the “Open with” menu for ALL file types
2. Remove unwanted entries from the “Open with” menu for a specific file type
   • OpenWithList registry key
   • OpenWithProgIDs registry key
   • Other registry locations (rarely used by programs)

Scenario

Let’s say a program named Compare It! was accidentally added in the Open with menu (and the Open with “Choose a program” dialog), and we’re now going to remove the unwanted entry.

Before proceeding, create a System Restore point as a safety measure.

Remove Unwanted Items from “Open with” menu for ALL file types

To remove an unwanted program from the Open with menu and the “Choose a program” dialog, use the following steps:

1. Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Go to the following location:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\application_name.exe

   In this case, the application Compare It! ‘s executable file name wincmp3.exe

3. Right-click on the wincmp3.exe key and choose Delete
   
4. Exit the Registry Editor

Thats it! This removes the application from the Open with menu and dialog box. The change is effected for all file types.

Remove unwanted items from “Open with” menu for a specific file type

OpenWithList key

The OpenWithList key contains a list of values, with each value containing the executable name of an application. Examples: paint.exe, notepad.exe, wordpad.exe etc. The applications listed under this key for a file extension appear under the Open With dialog box, as well as in the Open With sub-menu in Windows.

1. Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Go to the following location:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\OpenWithList

In the right pane, the registry value “b” references wincmp3.exe which is the executable file of Compare It! utility.

3. To remove the program from Open with dialog, right-click on its entry and click Delete. Click Yes when prompted for confirmation.

   

   Voila! The Compare It! entry is now removed from the Open with menu.

   

Editor’s note: Deleting that key has removed Compare It! from the Open with listing, and solved the purpose of this article! However, I’d like to tell you about other registry locations from where the Open with entries can be populated from (though the other locations are only rarely used by programs).

OpenWithProgids key

The OpenWithProgIDs key contains a list of values, with each value containing a ProgID. Some ProgID examples are txtfile, jpegfile, giffile, Wordpad.Document.8, xmlfile and so forth.

1. In the Registry Editor, go to the following OpenWithProgids key, located next to “OpenWithList“:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\OpenWithProgids

   In the right-pane, each entry points to a Programmatic Identifier (ProgId) instead of an .exe file name. Sometimes, programs use this key to add itself to the Open with dialog. For .txt files, txtfile is the default ProgId listed in the OpenWithProgids key.

2. If you find any unwanted entries there, right-click and choose Delete. In our case we didn’t find any extra ProgIDs.
   
3. Exit the Registry Editor.

Hope this article helped you remove unwanted entries from the Open with menu as well as the Open with (choose a program) dialog in Windows.

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