I have a question about How do I remove unwanted programs from the "Open With" list?:

When installing Corel WordPerfect, a file association with the extension ".dat" is created. I can't remove this association without removing several other associations (".wpd" etc.) because they are all together on a single file associations line. Recreating that line with only the desired extensions does not work. Can I do it in the registry? Any ideas?

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Dave, run regedit by typing it in start, run and clicking ok. In the panel that opens, click the + sign by HKEY_Classes_root. Scroll down until you see .dat and click on it. If there any values in right panel other than: Default dat_auto_file delete them and close regedit and reboot.


On Wednesday, December 19, 2001 at 7:18 am, Dave Graff wrote:
>I have a question about How
>do I remove unwanted programs from the "Open With" list?:

>
>When installing Corel WordPerfect, a file association with the extension ".dat" is
>created. I can't remove this association without removing several other associations
>(".wpd" etc.) because they are all together on a single file associations line. Recreating
>that line with only the desired extensions does not work. Can I do it in the registry?
>Any ideas?

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howdy. every post I've seen on this misses the solution by a mile :) if the others work at all, geez it's been a lot of work. anyway, here's the proper method to remove items from the "Open With" list in Windows Explorer, it works in Windows ME/2K/XP. - Start > Run > regedit - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\ - Find the extension for the filetype which has a cluttered "Open With" menu. - Now goto the "OpenWithList" folder and delete the entries for software you no longer want to appear... No need to completely remove file extensions from your system (EEEEK!!). Alternatively, if any software has been uninstalled but still remains default when opening a file-type. - Open Windows Explorer - Tools > Folder Options > File Types - Find the relevant file type, select it and click "Advanced" - Now just remove any unwanted entries or reassign them. - To reassign, using windows default commands, just use this format: eg. for the .txt extension, simply name the action "Open" and enter the following into the "Application used to...." field: "C:\WINDOWS\system\NOTEPAD.EXE" %1 Quick note, this %1 method will work half the time, the other half you will need to know the DDE settings, which are often software specific... If you use the above method though, in some cases I have found that sometimes WinXP will actually fill the DDE entries for me geez what an essay... :) hope this helps you all, theKeeper

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howdy. every post I've seen on this misses the solution by a mile :)
if the others do work at all, geez it's been a lot of work.

anyway, here's the proper method to remove items from the "Open With" list in Windows Explorer, it works in Windows ME/2K/XP.

- Start > Run > regedit
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\
- Find the extension for the filetype which has a cluttered "Open With" menu.
- Now goto the "OpenWithList" folder and delete the entries for software you no longer want to appear...

No need to completely remove file extensions from your system (EEEEK!!).

Alternatively, if any software has been uninstalled but still remains default when opening a file-type.

- Open Windows Explorer
- Tools > Folder Options > File Types
- Find the relevant file type, select it and click "Advanced"
- Now just remove any unwanted entries or reassign them.
- To reassign, using windows default commands, just use this format:

eg. for the .txt extension, simply name the action "Open" and enter the following into the "Application used to...." field:
"C:\WINDOWS\system\NOTEPAD.EXE" %1

Quick note, this %1 method will work half the time, the other half you will need to know the DDE settings, which are often software specific...
If you use the above method though, in some cases of MS software, I have found that WinXP will actually fill the DDE entries for me.

geez what an essay... :)
hope this helps you all,
theKeeper

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Hey all - I'm on Windows XP and followed these instructions exactly and it doesn't seem to make a difference! How can I do the same thing in XP?
>anyway, here's the proper method to remove items from the "Open With" list in Windows
>Explorer, it works in Windows ME/2K/XP.
>

>- Start > Run > regedit
>- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\
>- Find the extension for the filetype which has a cluttered "Open With" menu.
>- Now goto the "OpenWithList" folder and delete the entries for software you no
>longer want to appear...

> I edited the registry and restarted windows - and the same programs show up in the "open with" menu. See the screenshot: As you can see there's all sorts of junk in the menu that don't appear in the registry. (this is after a re-start) What am I doing wrong?

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Thankfully, Doug Knox and his associate Nigel Andrews have gone through the trouble 
of creating a compilation of just about every conceivable core file association for 
Windows, including fixes for exploring directories, the IE desktop icon, shortcut 
behavior, URLs and others that can't be repaired easily. 

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

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The above posts have done a terrific job of helping most situations.. thanks! One problem though, is that the .BIN file association is not covered. I installed a program called VLC media player, and while it works fine, it did not disallow claiming many file associations at the install.. and therefore it took over most media files.. PLUS, it also shows its icon on .BIN files now too, which should have no association at all. It also puts its name into contextual menus. How does one CLEAR OUT this file association, get the PLAIN unassociated icon back, and if possible, also remove its intrusion into the contextual right-click menus? Thanks :)
>re:
>http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

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addendum:
There seems to be (in HKEY CLASSES ROOT) a folder called SHELL underneath the .BIN 
category, that has VLC commands in it. Will removing this serve as part of the solution?
I tried HiJackThis first, and didn't see any VLC notices in there, so I didn't pursue 
anything with that approach.
This is Windows XP btw...

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Just as a footnote and closing to this series of questions, I ventured ahead and 
deleted the SHELL folder below the association for .BIN and the problem was solved.

This looked safe enough to try, since this only appeared under a few dozen extensions, 
and all of these new folders were traceable to VLC.

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This is the Windows 95 forum. Your post should go in the XP forum somewhere. It's 
irrelevent to here.







On Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 3:47 am, GN wrote:

>addendum:

>There seems to be (in HKEY CLASSES ROOT) a folder called SHELL underneath the .BIN 

>category, that has VLC commands in it. Will removing this serve as part of the solution?

>I tried HiJackThis first, and didn't see any VLC notices in there, so I didn't pursue 

>anything with that approach.

>This is Windows XP btw... 

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