How to customize the windows context menu. Editing the context menu

Click-to-open menus right click mice are called context sensitive because their content depends on the context - in other words, on what program you are in and what object you clicked on. File utilities, many free programs and other applications, to make them more convenient to use, often add their own commands and entire sections to the context menus. This is done, in particular, WinZip archivers and WinRar, as well as email clients Outlook Express And The Bat!, which add packing and sending commands to the context menus of files. email in the form of investments.

Unfortunately, the more such programs are installed, the longer the context menus, the more cluttered they are, and the more difficult it is to find the right command. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that many programs, especially free ones, suffer from the fact that the teams they create context menu remain even after the programs themselves are removed.

However, some utilities provide convenient ways to configure and delete context menu commands. This is the best and most reliable way putting things in order. But if there is no such function in the program (or if you managed to remove it), the composition of the menu can be changed using the Windows system registry.

However, before you go into the registry (which is not always safe), let’s look at several of the most common programs that provide not only the creation of context menu commands, but also the ability to safely delete them.

WinZip Archives

The popular archiver utility WinZip adds several commands to file context menus (such as Add to Zip) or highlights them in the WinZip submenu. To configure these commands, start WinZip in "classic" mode (not Wizard mode) and select Options > Configuration. In version 8.1 and later, go to the System tab under Explorer Enhancements. So as not to rummage around for too long the required command, in these versions you can disable the Display context menu items in a submenu mode - and then the archiving commands will be placed in the main menu, as in previous versions WinZip.

To change individual commands, select or disable the appropriate items in the Context menu commands section. By disabling the Display icons on context menus mode, you can leave the commands in the menu, but remove the icons.

Finally, to completely eliminate WinZip commands from the context menu, disable the Use mode shell extension(Use shell extensions, in versions 7 and 8) or Enable Explorer enhancements. However, keep in mind that you will lose the ability to extract content from the archive by right-clicking it, and you will not be able to expand the archive by dragging files onto its icon.

Configuring context menu commands created by the popular WinZip archiver

Music Winamp

The free Winamp media player adds three commands to the folder menu: Play in Winamp, Enqueue in Winamp, and Add to Winamp's Bookmark list. To remove them, Open Winamp and select Options > Preferences (Tools > Options) or right-click in the program window or on its panel and select the same command from its own context menu. An image of the hierarchical menu structure will appear in the General Preferences section on the left side of the window. General Settings) select the File types branch - to more earlier versions it's called Setup - and disable the Show Winamp mode in folder context menus in Windows Explorer(Show Winamp in Explorer folder context menus) or, in earlier versions, Directory context menus and click the Close button.

Explorer context menus

In Windows 2000 and XP Pro, you can use the Group Policy tool ( Group Policy). Let's say we want to remove the Manage command from the My Computer context menu, which launches the Computer Management administration tool. To do this, select Start > Run, enter gpedit.msc and press Enter. A window will open, the left panel of which will display a hierarchical tree of commands. Go to Local Computer Policy\User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer, double-click Hides the Manage item on the Windows Explorer context menu, select Enable mode (Enabled) and click OK.

This utility can also be launched by clicking Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Computer Management (Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Computer Management) and selecting Start > Run, entering compmgmt.msc and clicking OK.

To remove the entire folder context menu in Windows 2000, go to the Windows Explorer icon in the left pane and double-click Remove Windows Explorer's default context menu. In Windows XP you need to select the element of the same name, activate the Enable mode and click on the OK button The next time you right-click on a folder located on the desktop or on an icon in Explorer, nothing will happen - however, the context menus of other objects. such as toolbars will still work. To cancel these changes, simply return to the described dialog box, select Not configured, and click OK.

In Windows 9x to edit the context menu certain type file, open the My Computer window and select View > Folder Options. The Folder Options dialog box opens. If you go to the tab File Types(File Types), select the file of the desired type and click on the Edit button, another window will open - Edit File Type. This window has several useful functions, in particular, you can change its icon or description. But the main thing is that at the bottom of the window are those of the context menu commands that can be changed, and a number of buttons for this: Remove (Delete), Set Default (Default), as well as Edit (Edit) and New (Create).

As you can see, context menu commands can not only be deleted, but also created. True, for this it is necessary to be aware of certain agreements adopted when drawing up such teams. You can, of course, read smart books on this topic. However, for educational purposes, you can use a free program with a set of ready-made context commands. It's called Send To Toys and is located at http://www.gabrieleponti.com/software. Many of them, such as passing the file name and path to the clipboard, are useful in themselves - but even more so as visual aid to create your own context menu commands.

Context menu (right-click menu)– handy tool to speed up work in Windows. Today we will reveal a few simple secrets of working with the context menu and the system registry. Read how to configure this without third-party applications important element to suit your needs, using only the built-in registry editor regedit.

How convenient is the context menu (right-click menu) and why clear it

I would like to immediately define the terminology so that there is no confusion in the future.

The Explorer context menu, or action menu as it is sometimes called, is a set of commands that you can click to access. right(contextual) mouse buttons on any file or folder. Depending on the object it is called on, the menu will have different type or "context".

Note. Of course, not only Windows Explorer, and for the majority installed applications, because this the most convenient way access to the most important commands.

Immediately after installation operating system, the context menu has a standard and neat appearance, but as installation progresses additional software, new items are constantly being added to it. Eventually, there are so many of them that using this useful tool turns to flour. Therefore, it is critically important to be able to maintain the contents of the Windows context menu in order for fast and comfortable work.

This can be done in two ways:

• In semi-automatic mode, using third-party software.
• Manually, using the Windows Registry Editor.

Perhaps the first method may be a little easier, but with the second method there is no need to use various dubious programs downloaded from the Internet, everything is done standard means.

Moreover, using the registry will allow you to delve deeper into the internal processes of the system and learn a lot of new things, so we will talk about the second option.

How to edit the Explorer context menu through the registry

Launch the registry editor:

1. Enter the menu Start.
2. Enter the command in the search bar regedit and press Enter.

Important! Any careless and thoughtless operations can have dangerous consequences, including complete failure Windows boot. To protect yourself from errors, be sure to make a backup copy of the registry before you start editing it!

Procedure for creation backup file registry:

1. Go to the menu " File" in an open editor.
2. Select the item “ Export».
3. In the window that opens, in the lower field " Export range", select " Entire registry».
4. We indicate right place location and name of the new file and click " Save».

Note.If problems arise after manual editing, the registry can be restored to its original state from backup copy using the item " Import" in the menu " File» editor regedit.

As you can see, the registry itself has an original tree structure. The left side of the editor displays the tree itself, and the right side displays a list of parameters in the selected branch. To work with the context menu, we are interested in only one section: “ HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT».

As already mentioned, different sets of commands correspond to different objects (folders, files), so you will have to edit them in the registry separately. Our main goals: clearing folder context menu And common menu items for all file types.

Important! We will not change standard system context menu items through the registry. Only items added by installed applications are edited.

Clearing the folder context menu

All directory context menu settings are stored in branches:

... Directoty Shell.

... Directory Shellex ContextMenuHandlers .

... Folder Shell ex ContextMenuHandlers .

If you look closely, you can easily see familiar commands among the branches of these branches. So, a branch of the registry " Directory Shell" contains the items at the top of the menu, and " Directory Shellex ContextMenuHandlers» – bottom. " Folder ShellEx ContextMenuHandlers", basically repeats the content of the previous thread, so remove the same items from both threads if necessary.

All that remains is to delete extra commands. The choice of what to remove and what to leave on the list is a personal matter for everyone. Moreover, depending on the list of installed applications, the contents of the menu will differ significantly. Right click on the the desired entry in the registry and select " Delete" Then repeat this operation for the remaining selected elements.

This is the neat appearance of the registry branches in question and the menu itself after the cleaning procedure is completed.

Clearing the file context menu

The procedure itself is no different from that carried out in the previous section. Only the branches of the registry branch " HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT", storing the necessary parameters.

Now this:

...*shellexContextMenuHandlers.

They store common elements for all file types registered in the system.

Following the example of cleaning for folders, we delete all unnecessary branches in the registry and get a beautiful and convenient context menu.

You probably had to notice that in every Windows build the context menu is different. In addition, often after installation various programs are added to the context menu unnecessary items. For example, after installing any player, you will definitely see new item for the right mouse button. That is, when we right-click on any file to open it in specified program, the option to run using this program will be displayed.

Here, for example, is my context menu:

It's not quite small anymore.

Over time, there are a lot of items in the context menu, in short it gets clogged unnecessary rubbish. And the question arises: how to get rid of “unnecessary” items? Although many programs have already been created for these purposes, let’s consider how this can be solved using standard system tools.

IN system registry all data about the operation of programs is stored and Windows components. In this regard, careless handling of the registry and the slightest change can greatly affect the operation of the system, so be careful when making changes to it.

How to remove unnecessary items from the context menu?

Let's go to Start press the button Execute.

In the window that opens, enter the command Regedit and click OK .

Opening following folders:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, *, shellexe, ContextMenuHandlers

Having reached this path we need to do next steps. Right-click on the folder menu item that we want to delete. Let's say I want to remove shortcuts from the context menu − Notepad, AIMP player. In the list that opens, select Delete.

You will need a small utility called Right Click Enhancer. It offers an impressive list of commands that can be added to the context menu of any Windows versions, starting with Vista.

After launching Right Click Enhancer (if you are confused by the English interface, click Language → Russian to switch to Russian) you will see a set of tools, each of which makes its own changes to the context menu. Let's look at the most interesting of them.

Right Click Tweaker

Using the Right Click Tweaker tool, you can add almost two dozen to the context menu useful commands. Here are a few of the most notable ones.

• "Copy to" opens a window for selecting a folder into which you can copy the current object.
• "Move to" acts like the previous command, only it does not copy, but moves the object.
• "Copy to Path" saves the path to the current object to the clipboard. This option can save time if you need, for example, to upload an image to a website or graphic editor. You simply paste the file path instead of entering it manually.
• "New folder" creates a folder immediately from the context menu, while standard way Windows requires you to first go to the “New” submenu, and then select “Folder”.
• "Control Panel" opens the corresponding section with system settings.

To add a command to the context menu, just mark it with a checkmark.

Unfortunately, some Right Click Tweaker options do not yet work correctly with Cyrillic characters. Therefore, commands like “Copy Contents”, which saves the contents to the buffer text files, it is better to use only with English texts.

New Menu Editor

There is a “Create” item in the context menu. By default, it can be used to quickly create objects of several types: text document, folder, shortcut and others.

You can significantly expand this list with objects of other formats thanks to the New Menu Editor. Just run this tool and mark required types files by checkbox. To exclude objects from the list that you do not plan to create, mark them with a cross - they will disappear from the “Create” submenu.

Send To Manager

If you right-click on a folder or file, the “Send” item will appear in the context menu. It contains a small list of folders and programs into which you can export the selected object for storage or playback.

The Send To Manager tool will allow you to grow this list. To add a new directory to the context menu to which you will send objects, launch Send To Manager and click “Add Folder”. If you want to add a program, click “Add File” and select its icon.

All folders and programs added in this way will appear in the “Send” submenu.

Right Click Enhancer Professional

This tool is only available in the paid version of the program. By paying $10, you can add shortcuts to the context menu for quick access to programs, files and folders, as well as create and configure submenus. All other features listed in the article are available for free.

Small and free program FileMenu Tools will allow you to easily and simply edit the context menu of files for yourself. It will not only allow you to remove unnecessary items in it, but will also offer to embed several of your own, which are very useful.

FileMenu Tools - optimizing the context menu

Personally, I don't like it when new computer program after its installation, it independently integrates its item into context menu of files and folders. Of course, many people ask permission for this action (usually at the end of the installation process), but there are also clever ones who do not care about our permissions.

If you, like me, are already having trouble with the context menu, then the FileMenu Tools program will help you clean it of unnecessary items and optimize it.

Installation and interface language of FileMenu Tools

I will not describe the process of installing the program, because it is simple and straightforward. If suddenly its interface turns out to be in a language you don’t understand, here link to official page language packs for FileMenu Tools. Select the package you need, download it and unzip it, and then “throw” (copy) the result into the folder with installed program. All you have to do is specify your language in the settings and that’s it...

At the very end of the program installation, you can edit the context menu check the box and it will start immediately...

Adding items to the file and folder menu

So we are considering free version FileMenu Tools, so we won’t consider how to add your own commands to the file and folder menu...

On the right side of the main window of the pop-up menu editor (in the first tab “FileMenu Tools Commands”) you will find a large list of its additional useful commands, which are recommended to be selectively added...

Here at your service various types copying files and moving them, creating duplicates, batch and full (without the possibility of recovery in the future) advanced removal by filters...

…(including locked files and bypassing the basket).

There is a convenient tool for searching and replacing text...

...and advanced file renaming is also available.

Quite recently I described to you a separate program to copy path and file name- so, FileMenu Tools can also build such an item into the context menu.

I also wrote a long time ago about cutting and gluing any files into pieces - our today’s heroine of the review can do this too...

There are many additional useful items for the context menu - everyone will find what they need. Uncheck the unnecessary items and click on the active checkmark in the green circle to the left on the program toolbar...

With this action we will apply the changes. Congratulations, you now have new useful items in the files and folders menu...

How to remove unnecessary items from the context menu

In the right section of the main window of the FileMenu Tools program there are two more useful tabs - they will help us remove unnecessary menu items of files and folders...

Click on the small plus signs and in the lists that open, uncheck the unnecessary menu items. Do we remember that we need to apply the changes?

I almost forgot - using the left section of the main program window, you can add and remove separators between menu items and sort them...