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One of the "features" of VMWare Fusion is that it associates files on the Mac host with programs in the VM. Unfortunately I uninstalled VMWare Fusion, and my Mac still has applications in VMWare Fusion associated with it. How can I remove the associations? I went to the Genius Bar, but they didn't know how to fix it (they cleared my cache, but that didn't do it.)

I am running OSX Snow Leopard

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6 Answers 6

Reset to default
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You can try rebuilding your Launch Services Cache by running the following command in the Terminal:

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

The Launch Services Database is in charge of file/application associations.

Also, how did you uninstall VMWare Fusion - using the Uninstaller or just throwing away the application?

To use the Uninstaller (if you've just thrown away the application) you can run it either from the disk image you used to install VMWare (if you still have it) or open it from /Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion. Once that is run it will remove all the helper tools VMWare uses to help integrate the virtual machines with the host operating system (in this case Mac OS X).

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  • 1
    I tried it and it didn't work. Do I need to reboot or something? I looked for the VMWare uninstaller, but couldn't find it. Finally I threw away the application. Is there a common place all the uninstallers can be found, or are they just scattered around?
    – Jim McKeeth
    Mar 29, 2010 at 1:40
  • Uninstallers aren't standard so where they are available varies widely if they are installed on your system at all. I've updated my answer with where the Uninstaller is now that I know that is what you need.
    – Chealion
    Mar 29, 2010 at 15:02
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In Virtual Machine > Settings > Default Applications unchecking Open your Mac files and web links by using Windows applications and clicking Clean Up Applications removed all file associations for me in VMWare Fusion 8.5.0 and OS X El Capitan.

enter image description here

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  • In VMWare Fusion 12.x, for each Windows VM in your Virtual Machine Library, right click, choose Settings..., then click 'Default Applications' to get the window as shown above.
    – trcm
    Apr 14, 2021 at 8:31
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Remove the "Application" folder (in your Virtual Machines dir).

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  • My Virtual Machines directory was empty. I removed it anyway.
    – Jim McKeeth
    Apr 6, 2010 at 4:36
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The following fixed it for me:

rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/

I didn't have to rebuild the associations or anything - all the VMware Fusion entries went away immediately.

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remove [vmdir]/Applications if you can't even find ~/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion

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Ugh. I had already deleted the VMs, but the shortcuts were still there. None of the suggestions here worked. I had to remove the shortcuts all manually.

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  • Remove from where?
    – Matt Sephton
    Oct 16, 2018 at 12:15

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