[Pluvious]

Okay, this little annoyance has finally got me to post this question in hopes someone here knows how to tweak it.

How do I safely remove the majority of these entries in this dialog box??



Over time this list has gotten so bloated with programs that I don't use or never will.. there must be some way to cull out the crap. Let me guess.. registry?.. or is there some easier way??


ps.. I use XP home.

TIA

[cozumel]

Hey Pluvious. I'm only answering because you have by far the best Avatar in all of the Cyber World!!!

Searched on google with keywords 'xp open with dialog unregister program'
and came up with this:

[COLOR=#f3e9cd]This will require a registry tweak, please perform a registry backup[/COLOR][COLOR=#f3e9cd] prior to making any changes.

1. Go to Start>> Run. Type in: regedit [Enter] or click OK.
2. Drill down to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\FileExts

3. Click once on the "FileExts" key to view its contents in the right pane. You will now see all of the applications for the Open With menu. Simply right click and select Delete for any menu item you would like to remove from the list.[/COLOR]

You can also get little programs to do the same thing of course...
[COLOR=#f3e9cd][/COLOR]

[Pluvious]

Thanks dude!! I really appreciate you looking that up for me. (guess I didn't think it would be that easy..doh) Rep points for you..

And a little Elisha:

[Pluvious]

hmm.. didn't really work. I think that's for the open with pull down menu when you right click on files. I want to edit that list in the box..

[cozumel]

Sorry. You're right. It is for the right-click menu and not the dialog box.

[cozumel]

Try this, but remember to backup registry first:

Removing a Program from the Open With List

Rather than customizing only a single file type’s Open With menu, you might need to customize the Open With dialog box for all file types. To prevent a program from appearing in the Open With list, open the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Applications

Here you’ll find a number of subkeys, each of which represents an application installed on your system. The names of these subkeys are the names of each application’s executable file (such as notepad.exe for Notepad). To prevent Windows XP from displaying an application in the Open With list, highlight the application’s subkey, and create a new string value named NoOpenWith. (You don’t have to supply a value for this setting.) To restore the application to the Open With list, delete the NoOpenWith setting.

NOTE

The NoOpenWith setting only works for applications that are not the default for opening a particular file type. For example, if you add NoOpenWith to the notepad.exe subkey, Notepad will still appear in the Open With list for text documents, but it won’t appear for other file types, such as HTML files.

Edit: This definitely states it is for the dialog box this time!! I should have read the text in the previous one properly. I just checked my [Vista] registry with these entries and it appears to be correct. The quote above was taken from a web-page titled 'Customizing Windows XP's Open With List' and has an abundance of other tweaks you could make.

Edit 2: A couple more Elishas please and don't forget the +rep kind sir

[Pluvious]

Hmm.. guess I'll just live with it. Way to much work and I'm not to comfortable messing that much with the Registry.