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
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Comments
28 Responses to “How to edit the right click menu in Windows”
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Links from Blogs Says:
[...] How to edit the right click menu in Windows – Aseem gives a registry hack to edit the right click menu in Windows. [...]
May 8th, 2008 at 12:04 am
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Weekly Links: May 9, 2008 : LostInTechnology Says:
[...] How to edit the right click menu in Windows [...]
May 9th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
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Cómo editar el menú del botón derecho en Windows en rubendomfer Says:
[...] …y como dijo un sabio: “hacedlo bajo vuestra responsabilidad, si os equivocáis podéis hacer que el sistema de algún tipo de error”. Vía: online-tech-tips.com [...]
May 16th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
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How to add items in the Send To Menu Says:
[...] I wrote about how you can add/delete items from the right-click context menu, but didn’t touch upon the Send To menu. The Send To menu is used to speed up transferring of [...]
March 25th, 2009 at 5:34 am























Be careful with registry editing wor…
thts a nice thing
You can do many more things with this single registry key
like u can start notepad or Command shell
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
WOW cool! I thought that it was impossible to edit the right click menu. Thanks for sharing this trick!
Pretty handy tip. Thanks for sharing.
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!
Very good tip man! I will try it later in my laptop.
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
You can also use shell tool from shellcity.net and disable context items and enable again if needed. shellexview.exe
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.
I use freewares to change my right click menu. There are lots of them available for this task.
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.
Had a question for you Aseem.
How do you edit the right click menu for Internet Explorer?
I’d appreciate your help.
Thanks.
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.
can we also change these registry values using any programming language
how to backup registry? Using software to edit is much easier and safer for me.
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!
thaks a lot man..
i prefer FileMenu Tools
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\
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.
THANK YOU!!!!!!! YES, YES, YES! No more ridiculously long list when I right-click!
Is it possible to pin Google to my start menu instead of having the shortcut as an icon on my desktop?
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