Deleting "Open with" crap from Windows Registry

I've finally managed to disable the nightmare of file associations between Parallels and Windows and on the Mac it was relatively easy to get rid of all the Open With associations for Windows applications. The problem is, the Windows Registries in my Windows VMs are full of literally hundreds of the useless "Open With" entries created by Parallels without asking me or informing me.

Is there any quick way to get rid of all this crap or do you really have to go through the Registry manually and delete all the keys with the Open With entries referring to Mac applications? This wanton vandalism of my operating systems is really, really, really, really annoying! In fact, this whole feature is a total disaster -- nobody wants or needs file associations for everything between the VM and the host computer. At most you want associations for just a couple of things, and you want to set it up manually yourself.

 

I'd like to know the answer to this question also. I used the terminal command from this thread to get rid of associations to Windows programs in OS-X. EARTH TO SWSOFT - I use a Macintosh so I don't have to use a command line! Why don't the associations go away when I turn SmartSelect off?

But I still have associations to Mac apps in Windows. This is especially bad because I use Parallels with my Boot Camp partition (not all my apps work with Parallels) and they're there even when booted straight to Windows! ARRGGGHHHH!

For what it's worth, I used to like Parallels, but it's gone beyond the simplicity of the Mac with "creeping featureitis" turning it into bloatware that drags my system down and gets in my way. I'm now strongly recommending Mac-using faculty, staff, and students not even install the demo! Instead I recommend they try the 30-day trial of Crossover Mac, especially since Boot Camp is no longer available for Tiger.

 

This is issue has been harped upon, and it is good to see it springing up again. SmartSelect as a default either should be removed, or have an option to remove it which will also return all the file associations to their correct settings. What you call this ability (either feature or bug) depends upon how you use the machine.

 

How hard would it be to at least in the interim provide us with a small Mac app that removed associations to Windows programs and a small Windows app that removed all the associations to Mac apps?

 

Yes, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE provide this Parallels Team! Help us to get this junk off our machines!!!!

 

Hello,

please, check this article.

Best regards,
Alicia.

 

Hi Alicia,

Ummm...OK... but you please read the thread, OK? The article you reference only describes how to remove the associations on OSX and that's not what it's about. The problem, described in detail in the first post above, are the hundreds of "Open with..." entries in the Windows Registry database that Parallels adds without ever asking users if they want them. What is needed is a quick and safe way of removing those -- editing the Windows Registry is always potentially risky and while you can find matching entries you can never be entirely sure whether deleting them will break something or not.

The best thing would be to remove this counterproductive automatic function from Parallels entirely and just let users add cross-OS Open With.. associations on demand, only for the applications where they really want to have them.

 

I need this too - how do I remove the "Open with..." and the other Parallels shared tools from my Windows intall - using the built-in Windows Application Remover fails, which is disturbing - why is Parallels installing things that can't be removed?!

 

To fully remove all Parallels SmartSelect associations from both Windows and Mac OS X, follow these steps:

1. Go to the "Parallels Desktop" menu and select "Preferences..."
2. Make sure all "Shared web applications" settings are set to "Default".
3. While your virtual machine is turned off, go to the Edit menu and select "Virtual Machine...".
4. Select "Shared Applications" from the list on the left.
5. Make sure that "Share Windows Applications to Mac" and "Enable SmartSelect" are checked.
6. Start the virtual machine and wait until Windows has fully booted.
7. Go to the Applications menu and select "SmartSelect" > "Set to Default".
8. Hold down command and shift and click the "For All VMs" button. (Note: This will also reset all your OS X file associations, not just for SmartSelect. If you don't want to reset all OS X file associations, only hold down shift.)
9. While your virtual machine is turned off, go to the Edit menu and select "Virtual Machine...".
10. Select "Shared Applications" from the list on the left.
11. Uncheck "Share Windows Applications to Mac" and "Share Mac Applications to Windows".
12. Download RegSeeker and open it in Windows.
13. Select "Clean the Registry" from the list on the left.
14. Uncheck everything except "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT".
15. Click the "Auto Clean" button.
16. Uncheck everything except for "Clean the Registry", set the number of passes to 3, and choose "Select All".
17. Click the "GO!" button.
18. Repeat steps 9 through 17 for all other Windows virtual machines.