"Open With" list only shows 3 recommended programs

U

Uncle Grumpy

My "open with" list will only show 3 items, regardless of how many
recommended programs are available for a particular file type.

If 4 recommended programs are available, 3 of them show in "open with"
and then a blank line appears where the 4th program should be.

If 6 recommended programs are available, 3 will appear in "open with"
followed by 3 blank lines.
 
U

Uncle Grumpy

May be a goofy context menu handler and a variation of this.

Open-with list is collapsed; No items listed in the open-with menuhttp://windowsxp.mvps.org/openwithissue.htm

Also see this.

Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlershttp://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm
Click to expand...

Thanks, Wes... didn't help.

I found a listing in the Knowledge Base that described my problem
exactly, but the article referred to NT 4.0, and nothing else.

This isn't a critical issue, just a very annoying one. When I click
"Open With", the box pops up, and I see three recommended programs and
white space below them... then when I go to "choose" the program, I'll
see those three items and several others listed in recommended
programs.

If I choose something other than the three that originally showed,
that item will replace one of the three when I next try to "Open
with".

Something is limiting the display of all recommended programs to three
lines and the rest is shown as white space.

I wish I knew when this started. I have almost a months worth of
restore points.

Maybe I'll just go back as far as I can and see what happens.
 
P

PD43

Thanks, Wes... didn't help.

I wish I knew when this started. I have almost a months worth of
restore points.

Maybe I'll just go back as far as I can and see what happens.
Click to expand...

I went back almost to the beginning of my restore points. Now I know
that installing an Itunes update didn't cause the problem;-(

Only possibility remaining is Publisher 2007.
 
W

Wesley Vogel

I found a listing in the Knowledge Base that described my problem
exactly, but the article referred to NT 4.0, and nothing else.
Click to expand...

That does not mean that it does not apply to NT 5.1. Sometimes the Applies
To in a KB means absolutely nothing. You have to use a little common sense,
a little experience and some what the hell.

What's the link for the article?

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
U

Uncle Grumpy

Wesley Vogel said:
That does not mean that it does not apply to NT 5.1. Sometimes the Applies
To in a KB means absolutely nothing. You have to use a little common sense,
a little experience and some what the hell.

What's the link for the article?
Click to expand...

Found it at about 3am this morning. Couldn't find it again if I
tried.
 
W

Wesley Vogel

I used http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1 with "The Exact phrase
entered" for Open With and got 200+ hits. I also did Search Product:
Windows NT Workstation 4.0 to try to narrow it down and still got 200+ hits.

I was not going to look through all of those 200+ hits.

You usually get 200+ hits when you use the Basic Search.

I tried: Open AND with, OpenANDwith, still got 200+. I tried Open AND NOT
with, and only got 146 hits that had absolutely nothing to do with Open
With. MS is probably getting ready to screw it up with Windows Dead, I mean
Windows Live. ;-(

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
U

Uncle Grumpy

Wesley Vogel said:
You usually get 200+ hits when you use the Basic Search.
Click to expand...

I found it after about 20 such searches the first time, and had to use
advanced search to get it.

I can only say that the search facility at the KB site sucks.
 
W

Wesley Vogel

used advanced, and "open with dialog" and it came up #3 of 21

Yep, me too.

<quote>
CAUSE
The Windows NT "Open With" dialog has a hard-coded 64 byte (63 characters
plus NULL terminator) limitation when the associated application list is
created. If HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT contains any entries where the registry key
name exceeds 63 characters, the application list creation process is ended
early, and all of the possible entries are not displayed.

WORKAROUND
Remove registry key names that exceed 63 characters.
<quote>

I do not know if that applies to your problem or not, but I would be
surprised if it did not apply. Are the paths to any of your "missing"
programs really long?

This article by Ramesh lists Open With listings and their registry
locations...
Clear unwanted Open With entries
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/OpenWith.htm

You could use that as a guide to find the miscreants.

Or you could get FileExtInfo, also by Ramesh, and have it do the work
searching the registry for all of the info for the affected file
extension(s) for you.

<quote>
FileExtInfo utility is a small helper application that gathers information
about the association settings for a chosen file type. It exports all
possible registry locations that are associated with a particular file type.
The information (REG format) is consolidated and presented in a single text
file, to make troubleshooting easier.
<quote>

FileExtInfo - View the association settings for a file type easily
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/fileextinfo.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
U

Uncle Grumpy

Wesley Vogel said:
Yep, me too.
Click to expand...
Remove registry key names that exceed 63 characters.
<quote>

I do not know if that applies to your problem or not, but I would be
surprised if it did not apply. Are the paths to any of your "missing"
programs really long?
Click to expand...

Never checked. As I said: this ain't a "critical" issue, just an
annoying one.
Clear unwanted Open With entries
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/OpenWith.htm
Click to expand...

Been there, done that (I think... I'm deep in the throes of Early
Alzheimer's)
Or you could get FileExtInfo, also by Ramesh, and have it do the work
searching the registry for all of the info for the affected file
extension(s) for you.

<quote>
FileExtInfo utility is a small helper application that gathers information
about the association settings for a chosen file type. It exports all
possible registry locations that are associated with a particular file type.
The information (REG format) is consolidated and presented in a single text
file, to make troubleshooting easier.
<quote>

FileExtInfo - View the association settings for a file type easily
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/fileextinfo.htm
Click to expand...

I'll try that when I'm more sober than I am now <grin> (it was a
loooooooooooooong day at the job!!).
 
W

Wesley Vogel

Well, Haaaaaaaaave fuuuuuuuun!

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 

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