Get Rid Of Unwanted Items In “Open With...”

When you right-click any file, you’re likely to see an option called ‘Open With’, which lists several available programs on your computer to open the file with. To clear up this list of unwanted items, or to remove useless associations like the one mentioned above, start the Registry Editor and navigate to

 HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerFileExts

Under this, find the extension you wish to edit and click on the ‘+’ sign to locate the key that says “OpenWithList”. In the right pane, you’ll see a list with the programs in the list, like ‘explorer.exe’ or ‘notepad.exe’. Simply select the option you want to discard and delete it.

 

If you inadvertently remove an entry that you would need, you needn’t fret; when you right-click a file there will be an option in the “Open With” extension that will let you choose any program on your computer to open the file. Once used, the option will reappear in the list of associated programs.