How to remove Programs from the Open With menu in Windows 11/10

When you right-click a file, you see the Open With command. Whenever you use any program to open such a file, it gets added to this list, as Windows remembers that you had used it once; if you were UNABLE to use it for opening that particular file type. If you find too many such unwanted programs in that list, you can remove them with some registry editing.

Method 1: Adjust settings Choose default program

1. Right-click on the corrupted file and then select Open with

2. Click Choose another app

3. Select the correct application for the file type, for example .png then select Photos or Paint, .doc or .docx then select Word.... After selecting, click Always use this app to open file and then click OK.

Method 2: Fix Open with error with Registry

For some cases that cannot be fixed by method 1, please try method 2.

1. Press Win + R type regedit and then press Enter to open Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts

3. Here you will see the file lists. You select the file to adjust the default opening application. The example in the image is a .png file.

4. In the .lnk folder, click on the OpenWithList folder and then delete all the items, leaving only the item (Default) as shown in the picture. With OpenWithProgids you also delete all leaving only (Default) the same.

5. Delete the UserChoice folder

With other files with errors, you can also do the same, you can set the file to open with the default application