Remove Items From "Open With" > "Recommend Programs" List

Discussion in 'Software' started by rayzur, Jun 26, 2009.

  1. rayzur

    rayzur Private First Class

    Ok I have searched and searched for a solution to this common problem in Windows XP.

    The "Recommended Programs" list that appears when you select "Open With" after right clicking a file, html in my case, is cluttered with programs I don't use.

    The common suggestion is to do a regedit as shown below -

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

    However I still have some items that show up in the Open With list that were never found in the registry. To be specific they are some OpenOffice programs that opened an html file at one time. That is how they got on the list, I think they are shell extensions or something like that. I guess that is why I am unable to locate them with the regedit method.

    Is there freeware utility that can clean these out in XP?
    I found one called "Unassociate file types" for Vista but it does not work for me.
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2009
  2. rayzur

    rayzur Private First Class

    Hi, thanks for your reply.
    I have been using Z-Uninstall and CCleaner for a long time now. I ran the registry cleaner from within CCleaner and Glary just yesterday.

    The recommended programs I want removed from the list have not been uninstalled from the PC. They were accidentally used at one time to open an html file thus the reason they made it to the list. I have cleaned out some others by using regedit, but these OpenOffice apps are not visible in the registry. They are shell extensions I think.

    I am looking for a utility like "Unassociate file types" that will work on XP.
    Any suggestions?
     
  3. rayzur

    rayzur Private First Class

    Hi DomLuc,
    Yes it looks like you understand what I am wanting to do now. :)
    I read through that pctools thread yesterday, I have gone to just about every one that google brought up.

    I think I am on the right path now though, I found a small utility called FileExtInfo that generates a report of all registry entries of a choosen file type. HTML files in my case. I ran that utility and sure enough it found the offending entries from OpenOffice (they are sub apps from within OpenOffice called swriter and scalc, you will notice the OpenOffice icon on them)

    Here is a screenshot -
    [​IMG]

    Now here is the report generated from FileExtInfo, you will see the swriter and scalc entries colored blue -
    How should I remove them ?

    Code:
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    File association information for [.HTML] file type
    Generated by FileExtInfo v2.0 on 6/26/2009 2:29:15 PM
    http://windowsxp.mvps.org/fileextinfo.htm
    
    FileExtInfo © 2005-2007 Ramesh Srinivasan.
    Homepage: http://www.winhelponline.com
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.HTML]
    "PerceivedType"="text"
    "Content Type"="text/html"
    @="FirefoxHTML"
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.HTML\OpenWithList]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.HTML\OpenWithList\chrome.exe]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.HTML\OpenWithProgIDs]
    [COLOR="Blue"]"opendocument.WriterDocument.1"=" "[/COLOR]
    [COLOR="Blue"]"opendocument.CalcDocument.1"=" "[/COLOR]
    "Opera.HTML"=hex:
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.HTML\PersistentHandler]
    @="{eec97550-47a9-11cf-b952-00aa0051fe20}"
    
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML]
    @="Firefox Document"
    "FriendlyTypeName"="Firefox Document"
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\DefaultIcon]
    @="C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox 3\\firefox.exe,1"
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open\command]
    @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox 3\\firefox.exe\" -requestPending -osint -url \"%1\""
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open\ddeexec]
    @="\"%1\",,0,0,,,,"
    "NoActivateHandler"=""
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open\ddeexec\Application]
    @="Firefox"
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic]
    @="WWW_OpenURL"
    
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\DefaultIcon]
    @=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
      00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\
      65,00,6c,00,6c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,2d,00,31,00,35,\
      00,32,00,00,00
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\OpenWithList]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\OpenWithList\Notepad.exe]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\OpenWithList\WordPad.exe]
    @=""
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\shell]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\shell\edit]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\shell\edit\command]
    @=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
      00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,4e,00,4f,00,\
      54,00,45,00,50,00,41,00,44,00,2e,00,45,00,58,00,45,00,20,00,25,00,31,00,00,\
      00
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\shell\open]
    
    [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\text\shell\open\command]
    @=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
      00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,4e,00,4f,00,\
      54,00,45,00,50,00,41,00,44,00,2e,00,45,00,58,00,45,00,20,00,25,00,31,00,00,\
      00
    
    
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.HTML]
    "Application"="firefox.exe"
    
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.HTML\OpenWithList]
    "a"="firefox.exe"
    "MRUList"="badghc"
    "c"="Safari.exe"
    "d"="PSPad.exe"
    "g"="iexplore.exe"
    "h"="Opera.exe"
    "b"="NOTEPAD.EXE"
    
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.HTML\OpenWithProgids]
    "htmlfile"=hex(0):
    "FirefoxHTML"=hex(0):
     
  4. rayzur

    rayzur Private First Class

    Hi,
    I was able to remove them by deleting those two keys.
    The keys were generated when I had opened an html file with OO once before, I wanted to remove them for the sake of uncluttering the list.

    I backed up my registry so if I run into any problems I should be able to bail myself out.

    Thanks for your help! :)
     
  5. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

  6. rayzur

    rayzur Private First Class

    After my last post it dawned on me that it was put there when OO was installed as you mentioned earlier. That is why they were not able to be removed by the standard HKEY_CURRENT_USER route.


    Thanks for the link plodr. Yeah it's easy to put items in the list, if you open a file through "open with" windows automatically adds it to the recommended programs.
     

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