How to Remove Invalid “Open With” Menu Program Entry

In Windows 7 and Vista, there is no option or easy way to clean-up any incorrect Open with Menu items.

Today, I’ll give several ways to remove any wrong program from the list.

Open the powerful Registry Editor by typing “regedit” in Start Menu Search

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go to the following Subkey:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts

Instance 1:

Next, find the corresponding extension. e.g. .txt

Click OpenWithList

MRUList data value ab means a and b will be included in the list (notepad and google chrome). If you want to remove Google Chrome. Just change the Value data of MRUList to a only.

How about Visual Basic and C#?

Simply navigate to .txt in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\OpenWithProgids

simply delete the two registry entries…

That’s it!

You can also backup first using the Export option.

Note: Back-Up First Before Removing any entry

Instance 2:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.mp3\OpenWithProgids

Choose and Simply delete the binary value type registry entry of the program you want to remove.

Instance 3:

If instance 1 seems confusing because many program is listed but not included in the list, browse the file extension like the path below and  you’ll noticed a registry subkey that corresponds to the Program.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp\OpenWithList

Again, simply delete the subkey.

Instance 4:

Some programs like mspaint.exe is very difficult to remove. Go to the path below and delete the corresponding supported file type such as .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif and .png

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\mspaint.exe\SupportedTypes 

Difficult? Please stay tuned for the next version of WinBubbles!

If I find again new ways to delete the wrong program in Open with menu, I’m going to update this article.

Be careful and don’t forget to Backup… Enjoy! :)