Win XP Stuff

How to Remove Items from the "Open With" Menu

When you right click certain files, you'll see a selection to "open with," and when you click it, you'll see a list of programs to choose from. You can remove some of the applications from this list if you will never use them to open this type of file, or you can clear the list completely, by editing the registry.

Open your favorite registry editor.
Go to the following key: HKEY CURRENT USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts
Scroll down the list of file extensions to the one for which you want to edit or clear the list.
Click the + to expand OpenWithList
In the right pane, you should see a list of programs (for example, Word.exe, notepad.exe, etc.).
Click the one(s) you want to remove. Press the Delete key.
If this doesn't remove the program(s) you want to remove, go to: HKEY CLASSES ROOT, scroll to the desired file extension, click OpenWithList, and remove the program there (the settings under HKEY CURRENT USER apply only when your user account is logged on. The ones under HKEY CLASSES ROOT apply to all users).



How to Restore the .exe File Association

We got a question from reader Tim E. about a problem he was having running programs. It seems that when he would try to launch an application, he got an error message saying that Windows needs to know what program created the file. He also couldn't run System Restore to try to fix the problem.

This happens when the file association for the .exe extension in the registry gets corrupted, and it can be caused by a virus. You can edit the registry to restore the association. Here's how:

Click Start, Run. In the Run box, type cmd.
Type the following at the command prompt. Hit Enter after each line:
cd\windows
copy regedit.exe regedit.com
start regedit.com [or regedit.com]

Open the registry editor and go to the following key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\open\command.
Double-click the (Default) value in the right pane.
Delete the value data shown, and type: "%1" %*" in the Value Data field. Include the quotes.
Close the Registry Editor.
Restart Windows.