How to edit the right click menu in Windows

Posted on May 5, 2008 at 5:20 am

The last time I right-clicked on a file, I was annoyed by the fact that it took 2 full seconds to load the menu. Why? Well because I had installed so many different applications on my computer that a couple of them added themselves to my right click context menu automatically!

Some program ask you if you want to option and others do not. Now granted, I probably said yes a couple of times, thinking how useful it would be to have that in my right-click menu, but there are still some I don’t even use!

If you’re looking for a way to remove applications from right click menu for files and folders, you can do it yourself with a little bit of registry hacking. First, take a look at my ridiculously long right click menu:

Now that’s long!!! Too long! There’s Dreamweaver, Notepad, anti-virus, Pinky basket, PKZIP, SmartFTP, and PowerISO! Whew! So how can we customize the menu to something more manageable?

First, make sure to back up your registry in case something gets messed up. Now open the registry editor by going to Start, then Run and then typing in REGEDIT.

Edit right click menu for files

There is a right-click menu for files and another for folders. To get to the one for files, head over to this registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\

You should now see a listing like this:

All the folders listed under ContextMenuHandlers are applications that show up when you right click on a file in Windows. You can either delete the folder to remove the option or simply disable the folder, which is better in case you want to bring it back later on.

You can disable an application by clicking on the folder in the left pane and then right-clicking on the key value in the right pane and choosing “Modify“.

All you need to do is add a minus (-) in front of the key value like shown below:

Click OK, then the refresh button at the top and then try right-clicking on the file! The program should now be gone from the context menu.

Edit right click menu for Folders

You can follow the same steps as shown above for folders also, it’s just a different registry path. In order to edit the menu options for right clicking on folders, go here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\

You’ll have to scroll quite a bit, but once you get there, it should look something like this:

Again, you can either delete the folders under ContextMenuHandlers or you can simplt disable them by editing the key and putting a – in front of the value. Simple as that and works like a charm! Enjoy! Source: CypherHackz

[tags]right click menu, right click context menu, windows right click menu, edit right click menu, right click start menu, change right click menu, customize right click menu[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

28 Responses to “How to edit the right click menu in Windows”

Kitkat said on : May 5th, 2008 at 5:45 am

Be careful with registry editing wor…

Siddharth said on : May 5th, 2008 at 10:35 am

thts a nice thing
You can do many more things with this single registry key
like u can start notepad or Command shell

Abhijeet from Jeet Blog said on : May 5th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

Pretty useful registry hack there! Even I have a lot of crap in my right click. I’ll now go ahead and clean it up

Haris said on : May 5th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

WOW cool! I thought that it was impossible to edit the right click menu. Thanks for sharing this trick!

MJ said on : May 5th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

Pretty handy tip. Thanks for sharing.

akishore said on : May 5th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

Kitkat, yes I think I mentioned in there to make a backup of the registry just in case!

Siddharth, you could actually add more stuff to your right click menu also if you like! Go for it!

Abhijeet, Haris, MJ – It’s definitely a useful hack. I already cleaned out a few things from my menu. Enjoy!

Rafael Miranda said on : May 5th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Very good tip man! I will try it later in my laptop.

mymytri said on : May 5th, 2008 at 6:22 pm

Good tip.I haven’t tried it before.But if you worried about registry editing there is a freeware called mmm to manage right click menu easily..
http://hace-software.com/mmm.shtml

Allan Klu said on : May 5th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

You can also use shell tool from shellcity.net and disable context items and enable again if needed. shellexview.exe

Jenny said on : May 5th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

On the subject of file backup, sharing and storage …

Online backup is becoming common these days. It is estimated that 70-75% of all PC’s will be connected to online backup services with in the next decade.

Thousands of online backup companies exist, from one guy operating in his apartment to fortune 500 companies.

Choosing the best online backup company will be very confusing and difficult. One website I find very helpful in making a decision to pick an online backup company is:

http://www.BackupReview.info

This site lists more than 400 online backup companies in its directory and ranks the top 25 on a monthly basis.

Nirmal said on : May 5th, 2008 at 11:15 pm

I use freewares to change my right click menu. There are lots of them available for this task.

akishore said on : May 5th, 2008 at 11:22 pm

mymytri – Thanks for the software, definitely great for anyone worried about messing up the registry.

Allan – Never knew about Shellexview, will give that a try!

Nirmal – I wanted to write out how to use the registry for those who don’t want to install new software on their computer.

All of the above programs are great, but most add their own keys into the registry, etc.

MJ said on : May 5th, 2008 at 11:40 pm

Had a question for you Aseem.
How do you edit the right click menu for Internet Explorer?
I’d appreciate your help.

Thanks.

Sumesh said on : May 6th, 2008 at 12:22 am

Useful hack there, I’m interested in hacking the registry anyway (see my blog for a couple of hacks).

There’s a freeware to edit Firefox’s context menu too, I think. Can anyone tell me which one it is?

PS: Remove the Technorati tags – they’re a mess and looks ugly.

Ajay said on : May 6th, 2008 at 2:44 am

can we also change these registry values using any programming language

Steve Yu said on : May 6th, 2008 at 9:35 am

how to backup registry? Using software to edit is much easier and safer for me.

Ralph Law said on : May 7th, 2008 at 9:50 am

This is an awesome hack. I have been trying to get my commonly used functions on the list for a while.

I actually tried putting my favorite programs in the list for NEW stuff so it would be there each time I used it. This is going to really help me in Windows.

I think I messed up my registry once trying to do this last year but this one worked for me.

Thanks X2!

undead said on : May 23rd, 2008 at 1:37 am

thaks a lot man..

will said on : May 29th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

i prefer FileMenu Tools

Tony said on : July 15th, 2008 at 8:36 pm

I had to actually change the registries in two areas in order to remove some of the things from the right click menu

I had to disable the entries in the one you mentioned above…
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\

and in this one

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\

Bill said on : June 12th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

But what if you just want to REORDER the items in the context menu. I’ve yet to see someone address this issue. Can it be done ? Thanks.

snoopy said on : August 14th, 2009 at 3:37 am

THANK YOU!!!!!!! YES, YES, YES! No more ridiculously long list when I right-click!

Evelyn said on : September 18th, 2009 at 11:17 pm

Is it possible to pin Google to my start menu instead of having the shortcut as an icon on my desktop?

MLR said on : December 8th, 2009 at 4:36 pm

This method is very incomplete. It lists 2 registry locations as the sole means of cleaning of the right context menu, when there are literally dozens of entries in the registry.

I followed the method above and my right click menu was left untouched.

How about being more thorough and specific in the future

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