Four times cog in Finder's context menu

goodness, i really have to stop procrastinating and get out of the house. but anyway, i am assuming you are using leopard. the culprit is not just appfresh, if you browse around the apple support forums and others, you'll notice that many sparkle applications cause this issue. on leopard there was a change to how the launchservices database works, along with being moved to a different location, it apparently does not update/refresh too often, so when one moves an older version of an application to the trash and places a new version in the original location, launchservices will store the newer version's information in its database atop of the old version, causing the "open with" menu to become cluttered with duplicates of the offending applications. the fix is simple;

launch terminal, paste the following text into it and hit enter;

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

then log out and log back in, now the issue should be resolved.

Last edited by haleakalari (2008-03-07 16:18:53)

no problem. that terminal command basically forces launchservices to rebuild it's database of applications and their file-type associations. but don't worry, any changes you might have made prior the rebuilding (for example, if you set cog as the default application for mp3 files instead of itunes) wlll still remain unchanged, safely tucked away in the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist file in ~Library/Preferences. that line should solve your issue without any repercussions, i have to use it frequently. no, the problem most likely will not disappear by itself though, unless apple releases an update to address the issue or there are some changes made to the sparkle framework, so expect to be using the line fairly often for a while.

p.s. i went outside. i came back in eventually though, because it started to rain like the dickens.
p.p.s. don't use that command on tiger. it only works on leopard. there is a different command for tiger which is as follows;

/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Last edited by haleakalari (2008-03-07 22:57:08)