Windows 7 - Open with - Clean Up and Remove Programs

I don't have a .extension within hkey classes root.

The nearest to that would be .ext, which doesn't appear to be relevant. See picture below.

Nor do I any longer see a .extension location at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FileExts.

I don't know why that is. I did nothing deliberate as far as I know beyond deleting a few entries under extensions and then restoring mp3 defaults as mentioned in above posts.

A right click on an mp3 now shows 5 choices under "open with". See pic below. All I want to see there is the first 2 choices--Audacity and Media Player Classic.

I think I will do a system restore to a couple of days ago and take a fresh look.

Sorry, you would substitute .extension in the registry path I posted above for the actual file extension (ex: .mp3) instead.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.extension\OpenWithList

Give me that entire path again?

I just did a system restore to Aug 30, before I got involved in this thread. After the restore, I do not see a .extension key at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FileExts\.

I did have that location 24 hours ago.

I see .exe followed by .flac


I do not have:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.extension\OpenWithList

I have:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ext

followed by

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.eyb

This is after system restore to Aug 30.

You would substitute .extension in the registry path I posted above for the actual file extension (ex: .mp3) instead.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.extension\OpenWithList


For example, for .mp3 you would use this path:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp3\OpenWithList

At Hkey classes root mp3, under Openwithlist, I show this.

Right click choices for mp3 are I-tunes, MPC, Switch, Windows Media Center, and Windows Media Player.

I want MPC and Audacity only.

Check these locations to see if you have them listed here to remove.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp3\OpenWithProgids

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\FileExts\.mp3\OpenWithProgids

I tunes and Switch are shown in your first link.

The only choices at your second link are default and WMP11.AssocFile.mp3--I assume the latter is Windows Media Player.

Windows Media Center does not show at either location--but does show on right click.

I could fiddle with the apps mentioned yesterday--Open With Add and Open With View, but as of yesterday disabling did not properly change choices under right click.

Or I could outright delete the entries from the registry. I'm not clear on which should be done--if any.

My long story short (or at least kinda short). Unfortunately the OpenWithView by nirsoft can be useless which is sad considering they have some great apps. Though I guess it's not entirely their fault but rather the idiots that designed the registry.

While I was trying to shorted my Open With list, specifically one thing I wanted was to remove Internet Explorer and other things from .gif's Open With list.

I checked the "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.ext\OpenWithList " without luck (it did not list all the apps being associated), and eventually searched the registry for "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" (or whatever unwanted app's path was on the list) and then searched within those results for gif and found "giffile" and deleting that finally removed IE from gifs Open With. I also noticed "giffile" was in the .gif "OpenWithProgids" so perhaps IE associating itself with "giffile" is an elaborate way to connect it to .gif files.

Also searching the registry for "Capabilities" or "FileAssociations" seems to show which files applications are trying to associate themselves with. After deleting a bunch of things within all these searches I finally have a sensible list of apps on my Open With lists. This is what it took to get mine the way it wanted.

Big thanks to Microsoft for being incredibly stupid about the registry as usual and having tons of ways to do something making it impossible/ridiculous to try and manage. Of course it would be to intelligent to have a section in the registry where all file associations, including the open with lists, are managed from so it could be sensibly and easily controlled.

edit.....

Using regedit to search the registry is not really an option, using a decent registry tool like "Reg Organizer" is needed if you want to get anything done.