How to Add or Remove Programs From “Open With” Menu in Windows

How to Add Programs in the “Open With” Menu in Windows

Adding an app or program to the “Open With” menu is quick and simple. The process is nearly identical on both Windows 10 and 11, so you can use the following steps on any PC:

Step 1: Find a file of the type for which you want to add programs to the “Open With” menu.

Step 2: Right-click on the file, go to Open with, and then select Choose another app from the submenu.

Step 3: In the dialog box that appears, you should see a list of programs suggested by Windows. If the program you want to add is on the list, select it and move to Step 5. If not, click Choose an app on your PC.

Step 4: In the File Explorer window, locate and select the EXE file of the program you want to add to the “Open With” menu. Then, click Open.

Step 5: Select the Just once button.

Once you complete the above steps, Windows will open the file in the specified app or program. Subsequently, that app or program will appear in the “Open With” menu whenever you right-click on a file of that type.

How to Remove Programs From “Open With” Menu in Windows

While adding programs to the “Open With” menu is straightforward, removing them isn’t, as it requires you to delete a few registry files.

Step 1: Click the search icon on the taskbar, type in registry editor, and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Paste the following path in the address bar at the top and press Enter. This will navigate you to the FileExts key.

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

Step 3: Within the FileExts key, you will see several entries for different file types. Double-click the key with the relevant file extension to edit its “Open With” menu. In this example, we’ll select pptx.

Step 4: Click the OpenWithList subkey to view the associated programs with the file type in the right pane.

Step 5: Right-click on the program you want to remove and select Delete. Then, select Yes to confirm.

And that’s about it. Once you remove the string value associated with the program, it should not appear in the “Open With” menu for that particular file type.