Windows 10: How to remove invalid entry in "select an app to open this file" menu.

Ello.I'm getting invalid entries in the "select an app to open this file" menu, which pops up when attempting to open a file with no associated default app. By invalid entries, I'm referring to entries with no icon, pointing to executables that are either no longer in my system or have moved, likely created when I used them to open a file in this way in a previous occasion. I would like to get rid of these invalid entries. If you could kindly point me to a registry location, or have any other suggestions, I'd much appreciate it.Thanks,Eon

:)

 

Custom context menu entries

So, just throwing this out there, in case somone knows.

I have added a custom context menu entry for the program rightload, since by default the menu is broken in vistax64.

It works pefect with single files, but when I select mutiple files and try to open, I get mutiple instances of the program (which makes sense), here is my entry:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Rightload\Rightload.exe --server=1 --autostart %1

So the %1 passes the filename to the program, and when I select multiple files it is just opening multiple instances of rightload each with a different file.

What I'd like to do is be able to pass a list of the files selected to the program. Since I know it is capable of uploading multiple files from the context menu, all in one instance.

So, is there something I can pass besides %1 that will do this? I have looked around and can't seem to find an answer anywhere... *Frown

 

Entries in the Start Menu can't be removed

Hi there,

I have two entries in my Start Menu that can't be removed. Both the programs have been uninstalled from my computer, but their entries are still there.

I tried:

1. Going to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs to remove them there, but they aren't listed there either.
2. Clicking on the entries in the Start Menu. Nothing happens.
3. Right clicking and selecting "Uninstall", nothing happens.
4. Right clicking, going to "More" and selecting "Run as administrator". Nothing happens.
5. Right clicking, going to "More" and selecting "App Settings". Opens and list of apps, and of course, it doesn't list these entries, as they've been uninstalled.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

Can I customize the list of suggest apps in the "Open with" menu?

Well, I hope this helps the OP - it took a while. I tried 'Default Program Editor' (DPE) and it did indeed add (or remove) items, but when I tried to specifically add Word to pdf opening, it failed - it went through the motions, but nothing happened. So I started again, playing with settings for opening .doc files. This seemed to work: initially in explorer I had 3 programs appear in the 'default' list that pops up on a rt-click>open-with:



and this is what the relevant bit of the Registry showed:



Don't ask me why just 3 of those 8 (a to h) programs show up (maybe the 'instant' list is limited to three? - no, see later) - anyway, I used DPE to remove Wordpad from the list: when saving the edit as a REG file, this is what I got:

Code:

and the result in Explorer was:



and the registry now shows:



Note how item 'g' from the list has been removed (it seems there is no issue with having a letter missing). I then messed about trying to open a .doc file with various other programs, and they all started to appear in the 'instant' list:




So I thought 'well, that is easy - just open a pdf once in Word and it should appear'. So back to trying to open PDFs: but however many times I tried, Word would never appear.



even though there were any number of entries in the Registry 'Open With' list, including Word:



So what did DPE make of this - well, it showed some of the entries:



Although Word is shown, it doesn't appear on a rt-click. Its entry can be removed, but that doesn't help. So my attention was drawn to the existence of another folder below 'OpenWithList', namely 'OpenWithProgids', and that contained a specific ref to Sumatra (my preferred program for PDFs). Looking back at the same entry for .docx, I found this:



so I added an identical Word.Document.12 ref to the list for PDFs:



I think IrfanView is there as it got added during my experiments! I now get this in Explorer:


Hurrah! I then tried to use DPE to remove the redundant entries, and got this as a .REG file:
Code:

But when i merge that with the registry, the IrfanView item does not get deleted:



and as seen in the registry:



so I deleted it by hand, and at last have the entries I (or rather, the OP) want:




Note that my manually added reg entry is of type Binary', as there seems to be no way to add a value of type 'None'.

So it seems that DPE cannot cope with entries in the 'Progids' list, and something makes some programs fall into that list, rather than the 'openwithlist'. I am sorry for any typos above, or pictures in the wrong place - can't be bothered to check it too thoroughly. Hope it helps someone!

atb, Martin