{"id":54,"date":"2012-05-17T13:26:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T13:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appledomination.co.za\/index.php\/2012\/05\/17\/how-to-clean-up-your-open-with-menu-in\/"},"modified":"2015-08-10T16:33:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T16:33:09","slug":"how-to-clean-up-your-open-with-menu-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appledomination.co.za\/index.php\/2012\/05\/17\/how-to-clean-up-your-open-with-menu-in\/","title":{"rendered":"How to clean up your ‘Open With’ menu in OS X"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nWe all know about the ‘Open With’ menu, right?<\/p>\n

\nAs soon as you control-click a file, you will have the option to choose which application to use when opening the file. Naturally your default app will take precedence, but you have the ability to choose an alternative app, for various reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Thanks to About.com<\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The problem is that as we use our Macs to their full potential, that list changes when we install and uninstall apps on our machines. When an app is uninstalled, it is supposed<\/i> to be successfully removed from the Open With menu as well. But let’s be honest, it doesn’t always work out like that.<\/p>\n

\nOver time, our Open With menu can not only get very busy, but it can also start to show duplicate entries.
\nWhen these duplicate entries occur, only the currently installed one will actually work, and all the other incorrect entries will throw an error.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/a>This happens over time, and is not caused by user actions. It can however be caused from cloning your startup drive, as well as mounting drives that contain copies of applications.<\/p>\n

\nLuckily, there is a simple solution.<\/p>\n

\nAll we need to do is let Mac OS rebuild its Launch Services Database, and by doing so, rebuild the Open With menu, with all the currently installed applications of course.<\/p>\n

\nDepending on your version of Mac OS X, you will need to run one of the following commands in Terminal:<\/p>\n

\nFor OS X 10.5 and later, run the following command within Terminal:<\/b>
\n
<\/b>
\n\/System\/Library\/Frameworks\/CoreServices.framework\/Frameworks\/LaunchServices.framework\/Support\/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user<\/i><\/p>\n

\nFor OS X 10.3 to 10.4, run the following:<\/b>
\n
<\/b>
\n\/System\/Library\/Frameworks\/ApplicationServices.framework\/Frameworks\/LaunchServices.framework\/Support\/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user<\/i><\/p>\n

\nAnd that’s it. Your Open With menus will not be slim and trim again, with no duplicate entries.<\/p>\n

\nHope you enjoy this!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all know about the ‘Open With’ menu, right? As soon as you control-click a file, you will have the option to choose which application to use when opening the file. Naturally your default app will take precedence, but you have the ability to choose an alternative app, for various reasons. Thanks to About.com The[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[158,159,132,160],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.appledomination.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/clutteredopenwith200x187.png?fit=160%2C149&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6OBBc-S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13,"url":"https:\/\/www.appledomination.co.za\/index.php\/2014\/07\/21\/review-hide-your-secret-stash-on-your\/","url_meta":{"origin":54,"position":0},"title":"[Review] Hide your secret stash on your Mac with Hider 2","date":"July 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"We all have those little folders on our Macs... 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