Windows 7 edit shell context menu

In addition to making it easy to remove commands from the context menus, both the ShellMenuView and ShellExView have several other handy features. As I mentioned, both have a Find command on the toolbar that allows you to easily search through the list of items to locate what you are looking for.

If you remove an item from the context menu and then later decide that you'd like it back, just locate the item again and click the green Enable button. When you do, the command will be put right back on the context menu. If you're in ShellExView and you find an item in the list that you're unfamiliar with or want more information on, you can select the item, pull down the File menu, and initiate a Google Search by selecting either Google Search - Filename or Google Search - Extension Name command.

Are you frustrated with the clutter on your context menus? Do you use another program to control your context menus? As always, if you have comments or information to share about this topic, please take a moment to drop by the TechRepublic Community Forums and let us hear from you.

The Printto verb is also canonical, but it is never displayed. Its inclusion enables the user to print a file by dragging it to a printer object. When the user right-clicks an object, the shortcut menu displays the default verbs. You might want to add and support commands on some shortcut menus that are not displayed on every shortcut menu. For example, you could have commands that are not commonly used or that are intended for experienced users.

For this reason, you can also define one or more extended verbs. These verbs are similar to normal verbs, but are distinguished from normal verbs by the way they are registered. When the user does so, the extended verbs are displayed in addition to the default verbs. You can use the registry to define one or more extended verbs.

The associated commands will be displayed only when the user right-clicks an object while also pressing the SHIFT key. The value should not have any data associated with it. These verbs are never displayed in a context menu. After Choosing a Static or Dynamic Verb for your Shortcut Menu you can extend the shortcut menu for a file type by registering a static verb for the file type. To do so, add a Shell subkey below the subkey for the ProgID of the application associated with the file type.

Optionally, you can define a default verb for the file type by making it the default value of the Shell subkey. The default verb is displayed first on the shortcut menu. Its purpose is to provide the Shell with a verb it can use when the ShellExecuteEx function is called, but no verb is specified.

The Shell does not necessarily select the default verb when ShellExecuteEx is used in this fashion. Create one subkey for each verb you want to add under the Shell subkey. For each verb subkey, create a command subkey with the default value set to the command line for activating the items.

For canonical verbs, such as Open and Print , you can omit the display string because the system automatically displays a properly localized string. For noncanonical verbs, if you omit the display string, the verb string is displayed. The following diagram illustrates the extension of the shortcut menu in accordance with the registry entries above. IDropTarget is more robust and has better activation support because it uses COM activation of the handler.

Doing so is simpler, and does not lose namespace information as occurs when the item is converted to a path for command-line or DDE protocols. Normally verbs are ordered on a shortcut menu based on how they are enumerated; enumeration is based first on the order of the association array, and then on the order of the items in the association array, as defined by the sort order of the registry.

Verbs can be ordered by specifying the default value of the Shell subkey for the association entry. This default value can include a single item, which will be displayed at the top position of the shortcut menu, or a list of items separated by spaces or commas.

In the latter case, the first item in the list is the default item, and the other verbs are displayed immediately below it in the order specified. The following registry attribute can be used to place a verb at the top or bottom of the menu. If there are multiple verbs that specify this attribute then the last one to do so gets priority:. In Windows 7 and later, cascading menu implementation is supported through registry settings.

Prior to Windows 7, the creation of cascading menus was possible only through the implementation of the IContextMenu interface.

While you can find many of the context menu items in the ContextMenuHandlers directory, you need to look for others on the following paths in the Registry Editor. You can either navigate to the keys mentioned below or just copy and paste them in the address bar.

Once you have found the desired key for the context menu item you want to remove, you can either delete it or edit it. You can remove a right-click context menu item on Windows by adding a new string value file called LegacyDisable as well. You can try this method to delete other items from the context menu as well. Finally, here is my favorite way.

The method to remove a Shellex item from the right-click context menu on Windows is a bit different. Below is an example showing how I removed the Google Drive sync shortcut from the right-click context menu via Shellex. The Google Drive file sync shortcut should have disappeared from the right-click context menu on your Windows PC. You can revert the changes anytime later by removing the minus sign you added. If you find the Registry Editor methods described above too geeky or complicated, there are some programs that can remove or add a program to the right-click menu 0n Windows 10 and older.

I tested several context menu customizers that can easily add or remove any item for you. Then simply expand the relevant tree and untick the required extension. If you have made any changes, a green icon will appear on the toolbar to apply them and a red icon to cancel anything you have edited. Download FileMenu Tools. Glary Utilities is another well known and respected cleaning and optimizing tool that also has a function to disable or remove context menu shell extensions.

The entry is displayed along with what it affects all files, folders etc , and information about it is displayed below. The procedure is similar for the New and Send To tabs. Download Glary Utilities. This context menu management tool is able to add context items, but the removal options are more useful.

An advantage of using Fast Explorer is it displays a static item cleanup function as well as a shell extensions cleanup option. Although not as informative and with not so many functions, these 2 options basically cover what both ShellMenuView and ShellExView do individually.

You can then untick to disable the entry, click Delete to remove it or Clear will remove all menu items at once. For Shell Extension Cleanup select what you want on the left and the right pane will show the extension details with a Delete button to remove it totally or an Active tick box to only disable the extension.