Program not showing up in 'Open With' context menu

tram · 06 Dec 2020

I tried this a few months ago and failed after a lot of tweaking in the regedit. Probably this guide Remove Programs from Open with Context Menu in Windows and some other where it said how to add. I gave up.

Now I have a new computer with a fresh Windows 10, and is at it again. But this time I got surprised, as everything was already as it should in regedit. It was squeaky clean in regedit with only the three apps I wanted to show up in the menu.

The problem: It doesn't show up. Not in the "Right Click > Context Menu > Open With"-list.
But (and here's the interesting part and perhaps why no-one seems to have succeeded adding to the list with the regedit method) it does show up in the open button under the Home ribbon-menu on top.

See pictures.

Regedit, path: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.mp4\OpenWith List

Program not showing up in 'Open With' context menu-p5zyesp.png

MPC-HC, VLC, and DeoVR are all there.

Context menu (I've uninstalled Windows Media Player and Microsoft Photos):

Program not showing up in 'Open With' context menu-oys5o7b.png

DeoVR isn't there, as it should be.

Ribbon menu:

Program not showing up in 'Open With' context menu-ongix0r.png

There DeoVR are!

It's quite confusing, as it looks like they are identical, like both menus are taking information from the same sources. With both having the store-link and the choose another app option. When WMP and photos was installed they came up on both menus as well. It's almost like it's a bug in Windows 10.

Do you have any clue how to fix this?

On Windows 10 Home 20H2 (OS Build 19042.630), but I just updated, plus had the same issue on another PC about 2 months ago with another version.

Berton · 06 Dec 2020

Picture Viewer is replaced by Photos but still available. WMP is replaced by Movies and Grooves but also still available. I like VLC for videos/movies. Hadn't heard of DeoVR. It usually isn't difficult to right-click any file and choose Open With then select an INSTALLED program that can handle that format, can even scroll down and put a check in Always use this program.

What I've seen happen if just copying a program from one computer to another is it may not get that association accomplished, would have to locate the .exe file and choose it. That copying of a program also does not get all the support files needed, icons created and Registry entries made that the actual installation takes care of.

Bree · 06 Dec 2020

tram said:

DeoVR isn't there, as it should be...

Click on 'Choose another app'. If DeoVR is there, pick it. If not, scroll to the bottom of the list and click 'More apps'. If it isn't in that list either, at the bottom click 'Look for another app on this PC'. Once you have chosen it and successfully opened the file with DeoVR then it will have been added to the 'Open with' context menu. I use the Portable App versions of a number of things, such as Audacity. This is the only way I've found to add them, or make them the default.

See Option Two in this tutorial for more details.

Choose Default Apps in Windows 10

tram · 07 Dec 2020

Bree said:

Click on 'Choose another app'. If DeoVR is there, pick it. If not, scroll to the bottom of the list and click 'More apps'. If it isn't in that list either, at the bottom click 'Look for another app on this PC'. Once you have chosen it and successfully opened the file with DeoVR then it will have been added to the 'Open with' context menu. I use the Portable App versions of a number of things, such as Audacity. This is the only way I've found to add them, or make them the default.

See Option Two in this tutorial for more details.

Choose Default Apps in Windows 10

That's how I open files every time when I'm using Deo, (the home ribbon menu I didn't know existed until a few hours ago, just stumbled across it by chance, and saw Deo there, the reason I created the thread instead of just giving up). It has not added it to the list unfortunately (but to the register probably).

- - - Updated - - -

Berton said:

Picture Viewer is replaced by Photos but still available. WMP is replaced by Movies and Grooves but also still available. I like VLC for videos/movies. Hadn't heard of DeoVR. It usually isn't difficult to right-click any file and choose Open With then select an INSTALLED program that can handle that format, can even scroll down and put a check in Always use this program.

What I've seen happen if just copying a program from one computer to another is it may not get that association accomplished, would have to locate the .exe file and choose it. That copying of a program also does not get all the support files needed, icons created and Registry entries made that the actual installation takes care of.

Yes I know how to open the program. That's not the issue, it's the extra clicks and mouse movements.
The reason for the Open With function is that not everyone use the same program every time for the filetype.
75/25 vlc/deo for me, so always open with deo is obviously not a good option.

Deo is installed through Oculus (Kind of like if one would install something through Steam), that might be part of the reason for the comparability issue with the Windows function. But it modifies the register correctly, the part that's always mentioned when it comes to the "Open With"-menu at least (see screenshot in first post).

Would be really interesting to find out what's missing, as it shows up in the open with in the home ribbon menu.
Somewhere windows gets it should be an Open With alternative, but is a few cards short of a full deck.

dalchina · 07 Dec 2020

A reasonable guess would be that Windows responds to information provided by programs you install. That is, a given program has to declare which extensions it is capable of handling. When you install a program, one thing it typically does is to write to lots of keys or create keys in the registry. If this information is not correctly provided by the program, Windows will not handle it appropropriately.

Perhaps it may not be appropriate to blame Windows entirely. The program you're referring to is obscure to me, so I'm not willing to try it I'm afraid.

I have tried this:
Taking .txt as an example:
1. I found Open With did not list Atlantis Word Processor.
2. Using Open With, More Apps, I clicked on Atlantis Word Processor (without selecting the check box).
3. I confirmed that Open With now does list Atlantis Word Processor.

During this I monitored what was happening with Regshot (free).

This is the significant change I found:
HKU\S-1-5-21-677418459-601978306-1212125108-1002\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\OpenWithList\e: "awp.exe"

tram · 07 Dec 2020

dalchina said:

A reasonable guess would be that Windows responds to information provided by programs you install. That is, a given program has to declare which extensions it is capable of handling. When you install a program, one thing it typically does is to write to lots of keys or create keys in the registry. If this information is not correctly provided by the program, Windows will not handle it appropropriately.

Perhaps it may not be appropriate to blame Windows entirely. The program you're referring to is obscure to me, so I'm not willing to try it I'm afraid.

I have tried this:
Taking .txt as an example:
1. I found Open With did not list Atlantis Word Processor.
2. Using Open With, More Apps, I clicked on Atlantis Word Processor (without selecting the check box).
3. I confirmed that Open With now does list Atlantis Word Processor.

During this I monitored what was happening with Regshot (free).

This is the significant change I found:
HKU\S-1-5-21-677418459-601978306-1212125108-1002\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\OpenWithList\e: "awp.exe"

Thank you.

Hmm, so only that place that changes in the register. Where Deo already is.
I had my suspicions that was the case, but I kind of hoped it would be more, some anonymous place Deo didn't add itself to.
I'll try regshot with deo and another file format and see what happens, and regshot with mp4 and another program, perhaps it's only non-working with mp4.

Hehe, yeah, understand it's obscure. No reason what so ever to use or look up DeoVR without having a VR headset.

- - - Updated - - -

I tried open a wmv-file with Deo running Regshot.

This got added.
HKU\S-1-5-21-2538471960-1831829022-886657657-1001\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.wmv\OpenWithList\MRUList: "a"

But the same on wmv. Only gets added in the ribbon list, not the context menu.

Tried open a mp4-file with another program, and I only find the same input, and it comes up in the context menu.

dalchina · 07 Dec 2020

Try using this little program to add deovr to the Open With menu:
OpenWithAdd 1.2 - Supports Windows Vista >> Winhelponline

It's ancient, but I just experimented with rtf and wordpad, where wordpad wouldn't show up. After using this it did.

Needs deeper understanding of why a program in the list is displayed or not.