How do you delete /OpenWithProgids

SIW2 said:

Dunno why I bother posting.

Your posts, I'm sure, are appreciative. But I have never trusted third party registry software. CCleaner excluded. Glennc, and others, are free to try third parties until they receive successful results. If unsuccessful, well..., "When all else fails".

LOL.

Regscanner is not a registry cleaner.

It is a search tool. Nir Sofer is probably the most respected developer of all time.

SIW2 said:

Regscanner is not a registry cleaner.

Sorry, but in any of my previous post I never mentioned that Regscanner was a registry cleaner. I never mentioned Regscanner at all. I didn't mean to compare it to CCleaner as a registry cleaner. I was talking about third party registry programs in general. Be they cleaners, editors, scanners, etc...

I ask again for the last time...Tried post #8 yet?

marsmimar said:

It might be helpful to review exactly what the registry is and what it was meant to do.

The Windows Registry

A lot of people will say Windows 7 registy is not the same as Windows 98 or even Windows XP. And that's certainly true. But the basic underlying function is still the same . . . It keeps track of all software installed on the computer and (perhaps most importantly) how each program relates to and interacts with all the other programs on the computer. And this is where many registry editors/cleaners give the appearance that they're not doing the cleanup very well.

Let's say you uninstall Program A. It's very possible that Program A hooked itself into a couple hundred registry keys, and some of those keys belong to Program B and Program C. A registry cleaner (at least the reputable ones) will err on the side of caution and NOT remove the registry entries JUST IN CASE they are still needed by Programs B and C. Personally, I'd rather have a few hundred or even a few thousand unneeded registry entries than to have a program crash because a needed key was mistakenly removed.

And to repeat an often stated fact, Windows 7 is not your father's Windows XP where tweaks and cleaners were the norm in order to keep XP working the way it was supposed to.

Hello marsimar,
Thank you for the quick clear explanation of the more basics of the registry. I rarely use any program more intrusive than CCleaner. I get nervous. Thanks again.
Glenn

severedsolo said:

Rather than deleting them in the registry, why not change them in the File associations?

Go Start>Default Programs and select them from there.

Seems to me it's not accepting the changes because you haven't told it what to change it to.

Hello severedsolo,
Have attempted that several times. No luck. The particular file extensions don't even show up in File Associations. Thanks for another plan of action. Take care.
glennc

wilywombat said:

To reset your file associations to default you can follow this tutorial which will get rid of the Irfan problem (but also reset any others you have setup!):-
Default File Type Associations - Restore

Hello wilywombat,
Resetting my file associations to default through an unknown program, and let me say I have been on this forum long enough to trust Brink explicitly, is not my intention. I have file associations that I don't wan't back to default. I may have to resort to it, but I would just like to get the dang program boogers out. I have used blazerquitar's suggestion and I either failed to do it right or it doesn't work fully. All the OpenProgramWith stuff is back with the references to Ifanview and Foxit.
Thanks for you time and assistance. Take care
Glenn

Shootist said:

severedsolo said:

Rather than deleting them in the registry, why not change them in the File associations?

Go Start>Default Programs and select them from there.

Seems to me it's not accepting the changes because you haven't told it what to change it to.

Why have those entries in the registry when the program is no longer installed on the system.
That is how the registry gets bloated. Entries from all kinds of stuff that is no longer needed.

Shootist,
Definitely agree with you! Bloated, but severely crucial. Thanks.

mitchell65 said:

Shootist said:

severedsolo said:

Rather than deleting them in the registry, why not change them in the File associations?

Go Start>Default Programs and select them from there.

Seems to me it's not accepting the changes because you haven't told it what to change it to.

Why have those entries in the registry when the program is no longer installed on the system.
That is how the registry gets bloated. Entries from all kinds of stuff that is no longer needed.

Just a small but very, very important point when advising anyone to go into the Registry. Always, Always make a backup of the Registry before you touch it. One very small mistake in the registry can stop your PC working completely. With a backup you can easily put things right, without it you could be in serious trouble.
Here's Brink's tutorial on how to backup the Registry;
Registry - Backup and Restore

Hellooo mitchell65,
Thanks for stepping in to the arduous fray. Thanks for the great reminder to do a Registry Backup. Excellent and I didn't think of it, in time. So hopefully I can still find a way out of the issue.
Glenn

SIW2 said:

You could have a look with RegScanner - search - then rt click each entry and Jump to key.

RegScanner: Alternative to RegEdit find/search/scan of Windows

I know you can do a similar search with Regedit - but this finds and lists them all in one go - bit more convenient.

Hello SIW2,
Just got to look at it. Seems a bit daunting. It relys on my knowledge of the registry, but does seem to be easier that regedit. Downloaded and now seeing if I am man enough to jump back into the fray. Thank for the assistance and your time.
glennc