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LaunchServices

How macOS opens a file in the correct app

Details of the chain of information, from the UTI of the file to be opened, through LaunchServices’ database of document types. How to deal with problems.

April 10, 2024 Macs, Technology

LaunchServices problems and Ventura

Using lsregister to clean up the Open With menu only works temporarily, and it’s populated by apps found anywhere local to your Mac. That’s not good for VMs sharing the Applications folder.

October 14, 2023 Macs, Technology

LaunchServices problems in Sonoma 14.0

Odd problems with Sonoma: every old app now listed in the Open With popup menu in the Finder, and lsregister that reports errors, and gets System Settings into trouble.

October 11, 2023 Macs, Technology

Last Week on My Mac: Enter the codeless TemplateApp

After the dataless file, we get the codeless app, in the form of Sonoma’s new Web Apps. These sidestep issues of code-signing with their linked UUIDs and ad hoc signatures.

October 8, 2023 Macs, Technology

Sonoma’s Web Apps in the log

A fuller account with log extracts to show what happens when a user creates a Web App, and when they run it.

October 6, 2023 Macs, Technology

How do Sonoma’s Web Apps work?

What is a Web App? How to create and use them, and how they run without any executable code. Could crafted Web Apps turn malicious?

October 5, 2023 Macs, Technology

How to get the right app to open a document and fix LaunchServices problems

What if, when you double-click a document, the wrong app tries to open it, or maybe the right app but wrong version? Includes command tool use.

July 6, 2023 Macs, Technology

Who’s managing my apps?

launchd, LaunchServices, RunningBoard, TCC, CFPrefsd, and other macOS services that manage and control your apps.

March 11, 2023 Macs, Technology

Demonstrating causal connections using the log

I’m browsing images in the Finder, when my software firewall tells me macOS is trying to phone home to one of Apple’s servers. We all know what that means, don’t we?

January 20, 2023 Macs, Technology

How does macOS tell the type of a file?

T T Read More

How does the Finder know the right app to open a file with? Or QuickLook how to preview its contents? Or other services like Spotlight know how to index and handle files? UTIs.

December 24, 2022 Macs, Technology, Updates

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