I recently installed snow leopard to a new hard drive. Before I formatted the hard drive with leopard on it, there was duplicate everything when I right clicked and used open with, but after I formatted the old drive, most of them disappeared... except for one. Right now, I'm seeing two VLC players and I don't know why. I tried opening a file with each of them and they both point to the same VLC so I was wondering how I can remove the duplicate. Anyone know?
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Right-click open with... showing duplicate apps?
- Thread starter Morisato
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This should be moved to the OSX forum, but:
Resetting the 'Open With' Menu
Resetting the 'Open With' menu will remove duplicates and ghost applications (ones you have deleted) from the list. You reset the 'Open With' menu by rebuilding the Launch Services database your Mac maintains. There are multiple ways to rebuild the Launch Services database, including third-party system utilities like Cocktail and Onxy.
If you don't own a system utility that can rebuild the Launch Services database, don't worry; you can perform the rebuild yourself using Terminal.
Using Terminal to Rebuild the Launch Services Database
Launch Terminal, located at /Applications/ Utilities/.
For OS X 10.5.x and later, enter the following at the Terminal prompt:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
For OS X 10.3.x - 10.4.x, enter the following at the Terminal prompt:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/\Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister \-kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
The above is one command and is entered on a single line. You can simply copy/paste the above command into Terminal, then press Return/Enter to execute the command.
The rebuild process can take a minute or two. Once the Terminal prompt returns, you can quit Terminal.
Now when you use the 'Open With' menu, you should see an application list that's limited to the applications currently installed on your Mac, with no duplicates or ghosts.
Resetting the 'Open With' Menu
Resetting the 'Open With' menu will remove duplicates and ghost applications (ones you have deleted) from the list. You reset the 'Open With' menu by rebuilding the Launch Services database your Mac maintains. There are multiple ways to rebuild the Launch Services database, including third-party system utilities like Cocktail and Onxy.
If you don't own a system utility that can rebuild the Launch Services database, don't worry; you can perform the rebuild yourself using Terminal.
Using Terminal to Rebuild the Launch Services Database
Launch Terminal, located at /Applications/ Utilities/.
For OS X 10.5.x and later, enter the following at the Terminal prompt:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
For OS X 10.3.x - 10.4.x, enter the following at the Terminal prompt:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/\Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister \-kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
The above is one command and is entered on a single line. You can simply copy/paste the above command into Terminal, then press Return/Enter to execute the command.
The rebuild process can take a minute or two. Once the Terminal prompt returns, you can quit Terminal.
Now when you use the 'Open With' menu, you should see an application list that's limited to the applications currently installed on your Mac, with no duplicates or ghosts.
I already tried that. It's not a ghost because both VLC programs are valid links... they're just linked to the same application.
I'm having a some what related issue, so thought I'd see if anyone had any suggestions. When I right click on a file and use my mouse to navigate to open with, I see all the application choices once. However, when I right click on a file and use my keyboard arrows to move to the open with menu, I see the entire menu multiple times (image below). Any ideas?
I've deleted my launch services plist file, in addition to rebuilding launch services through cocktail, without any success.
I've deleted my launch services plist file, in addition to rebuilding launch services through cocktail, without any success.
