If you are used to customize your GNOME desktop environment according to you needs you would probably end with a too much populated “open with” contextual menu. When you right click on some ODT, MP3, AVI or whatever file you could end with several duplicate entries for Okular, Audacious, VLC, Brasero etc. Getting rid of them is pretty easy once you know the reason why they are over there.

Basically those “open with” entries are identified by .desktop files in

$HOME/.local/share/applications

and

/usr/share/applications

However there is no need to mess around with these files, you could end up with no menu entry at all!

These .desktop files are created every time you or the setup script of an application create an entry of the main Gnome applications menu. For example every time you move an entry in the applications menu (by right clicking on it and choosing Edit Menu) you end up with duplicate entry. These entries most of the times are not shown in the menu since you can untick them, however they would display in the “Open with” context menu!

The bottom line is that you should right click on the Gnome application menu and choose Edit Menu, then delete all the duplicate entries or entries which are hidden (these display in italics and are unticked). You may need to logoff and login again for these changes to be immediately effective.

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