The Open with menu in Windows Explorer is designed to make your experience more convenient while you work with your files – it’s a quick way to open file types within many different applications. One of the best examples of it’s usage is centered around the handling of photos. Sometimes photos just need to be viewed quickly and other times they necessitate some touch up work, which then requires loading a heavier editing application – typically. Over time, the Open with drop-down can grow quite lengthy for files of this type. Worse – if you accidentally associated a file type  with the wrong program you now have a lasting impression of that time Notepad couldn’t open your JPEG.

Correcting or otherwise trimming the problem involves digging into the Windows Registry with regedit.

Navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \ Explorer \FileExts\

Under FileExts you will see a listing of all the registered file types on the computer. Skim the list and locate the specific file extension that you wish to adjust. Expand it’s tree and notice the OpenWithList sub folder.

With OpenWithList selected you will see a listing of all the associated applications in the right-hand panel. Locate the application you wish to disassociate with the file type – in this example somehow .jpg got attached to the Chrome browser. Right-click on the item and choose Delete.

That’s all there is to it.