[stukel1]

Does anyone know how to eliminate the duplicates in the contextual menus

[Nivag]

Try pressing Apple + F5

I know once VoiceOver is activated it creates double lines in the top menu bar lists. not sure about the contextual menus.

This option can also be switched on and off via System Preferences > Universal Access

[stukel1]

Here is a screenshot

[rehoot]

Here is an article that explains how the associations are made:

macosxhints.com - Remove excess 'Open with...' contextual menu entries

Be sure to make a backup copy of any file that you touch so you can recover from any mistakes if you edit Info.plist files.

I'm wondering if you have a backup drive installed and your Finder is detecting programs in two places. If so, unmount the backup drive.

[Obi Wan's Ghost]

Originally Posted by rehoot 

I'm wondering if you have a backup drive installed and your Finder is detecting programs in two places. If so, unmount the backup drive.

My system has been doing that ever since I started doing full back ups to an external HDD. Even after unmountinf the external drive and rebooting the contextual menu still shows more than a single instance of an application.

[mac128k-1984]

onyx will reset or rebuild the LaunchServices database

[rehoot]

Originally Posted by Obi Wan's Ghost 

My system has been doing that ever since I started doing full back ups to an external HDD. Even after unmountinf the external drive and rebooting the contextual menu still shows more than a single instance of an application.

I'm assuming that you are copying files to make backups, and as you copy them the double copy of the applications are registered. Perhaps the double copies are registered on the boot drive so removing it the mounted drive doesn't remove the double copies.

Someone above mentioned how to rebuild launch services, but the link was in French (?). This approach might work after that external drive is unmounted (I have not done this). I will make another post below on using the lsregister program (which you already have).

Try using a differerent method of archiving your files. There are many ways, one of which is to use Disk Utility (in Applications->Utilities to create an archive from a folder. Look in the menus of Disk Utility under Images->New->Image from Folder. You can then archive individuals folders (like the /Applications folder). Another way is to click the icon drive for the drive (in Disk Utility) on the left and and make an archive of the entire disk.

Experiment with saving and restoring files so you know what you are doing. It wouldn't hurt to have a double backup of your most important files if you have the space.

[rehoot]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 

onyx will reset or rebuild the LaunchServices database

I looked at this link, but it was in French (I now see the menu for the English version). Anyway the launch services sounds like the way to correct the double entries after you unmount the backup drive. Here is a link that tell a bit about the lsregister
program.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...31215144430486

The important options are the -kill and -r (lower case!) options.

Before you run this you might want to run
lsregister -dump > ~/LaunchServicesSave.txt
to save a listing of you file associations in case of emergency.

I ran
./lsregister -kill -r -domain system
from the /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support folder, and my computer did not expload. It looks like the old version had information about every .dmg and every external volume that I had ever loaded, and now that is gone (which is mostly OK).