I love VMware, I hate Parallels, and I really hate programs that screw with my context menus.
By default both VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop associate specific files on the Mac side with Windows applications. Because there's nothing better than accidentally double-clicking a text file with a .log extension and launching an entire VM to view it.
VMware Fusion
- Inside Fusion, open the Virtual Machine Library window – Window menu > Virtual Machine Library, or press CMD+SHIFT+L.
- Select the VM and click the Settings button.
- Click the Applications icon, and then select the Default Applications tab.
- Uncheck Open your Mac files and web links using Windows applications and close the window.
Repeat the process for every VM.
Parallels Desktop
It's not easy, but does that surprise you? The icon may look different if Parallels is still installed. It's probably considered a feature that all the file associations remain, even after Parallels is removed – who doesn't like error messages!?
- Find your VM – by default they are located in ~/Documents/Parallels/
- Right click on the .pvm file and choose Show Package Contents
- Delete the Windows Applications folder, and empty the trash.
Tags: Fusion, OS X, Parallels, VMware
July 28th, 2010 at 4:59 am
Many thanks. I searched the help and didn't find it. I googled and I found your post. Most helpful. I was just going crazy with all those useless items in the menu, even when VMWare was not in use. I only use it to test the appearance of sites in IE, and even then, I only use IE and no other application.
Of course, I could have figured it out myself eventually, but you saved me some time and there is really nothing more precious.
August 11th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Just wanted to add my thanks for this. I have been trying these programs out, and after uninstalling Parallels was annoyed to see all the shortcuts etc had the red lines! vmware not so bad, but still great to get rid of the open with stuff. Many thanks.
August 21st, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Thanks for this!
Just a small comment, it works for me but after a restart.
And I like also your solution in another post to avoid Windows App in Spotlight (last time I try to run the calculator, I "freeze" my small macbook with VMWare launching the windows calc app!).
September 30th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Many thanks for this. You have just saved me heaps of time. Was really getting sick of scolling down through a very long list everytime I need to open about 120 files for a necessary conversion.
Running OSX10.6.4 on MacBookPro and VMWare 2.0.7.
It did not require a restart. The effect was immediate. Hooray!
May 17th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
You are a stud. Stupid $%&ing Parallels left those app shortcuts behind and NOWHERE in their KB or forums is how to get rid of them.
Thank you.
June 3rd, 2011 at 6:26 am
Thanks a ton for this! A shame disabling Shared Apps in Parallels doesn't do this by itself. :/