[ @ChipMcK: RCDefaultApp hasn't been updated since 2009. I'm just guessing, but this may be because it's no longer needed. I'm new to Mac, but Mikero called my attention (above) to the Get Info dialog, and it appears that I can change file typeassociations right from there (via the "Change All..." button). ]
I spent some time looking through my system internal storage (can't call these things hard drives anymore). I found not one, but two, folders full of Parallels "apps," things that I believe acted like shortcuts to Windows programs that would open the Windows program in the Parallels VM. These remained even though I had uninstalled Parallels. (I followed the Parallels uninstall instructions, but they consisted simply of dragging the Parallels app to the trash. I shouldn't be surprised that there are other Parallels-related folders still around.) Anyway, I trashed both these folders. This enabled me to fix the problem I mentioned in my second post in this thread:
I have VMware Fusion > Preferences > Default Applications > Open Mail (mailto) with: > Microsoft Outlook.app. When I click a mailto in an OS X browser window, I get "Parallels Desktop was not found." The Microsoft Outlook.app icon visible in the Default Applications dialog contains the tiny Parallels icon.
With the Parallels apps folders gone, I was able to select a Microsoft Outlook.app in the Fusion default applications list that did not have a tiny Parallels icon visible on it. This Microsoft Outlook.app is the Fusion app link; Mailto links work correctly now, opening Microsoft Outlook in my Fusion Windows VM.
Two related problems remain:
1. There's no Fusion app link for Windows Photo Viewer. I don't know of a manual way to create one. Even if I could do it manually, I don't think it would work because I have found out that the Windows Photo Viewer program is a Windows DLL file. DLL files are not Windows executables, and must be run with the Windows program RUNDLL32.exe. The command line would be like rundll32 "%Program Files%\Windows Photo Viewer\PhotoViewer.dll" . This is standard Windows command-line stuff, but I don't know how to get Fusion to accomplish something like this. I suppose I could create a Windows batch file, but, again, how do I get Fusion to run it? Especially with problem #2...
2. I still have Windows executables (program files with the .exe extension) that don't have Fusion app links and don't appear in the Fusion applications menu list. All of these are still associated with Parallels. I used the Get Info dialog to change one of them to be associated with Fusion but, as I expected, Fusion tried to open it as a VM, not as an app to open within Windows. How do I get Fusion to create Windows app links for .exe files that run in Windows?