Customize the right-click context menu in Windows XP and Vista

Posted on December 26, 2007 at 7:25 am

FileMenu Tools is a a freeware application that you can use to customize and edit the right-click context menu for Explorer in Windows XP and Windows Vista. It’s a small nifty little app that makes it super easy to add and remove menu items to the context menu. You can add built-in utilities to the context menu that perform certain operations over files and folders.

Here are a couple of other things you can do with FileMenu Tools that make working in Explorer more efficient:

  • Ability to add customized commands to the context menu which let you run external applications, copy/move to a specific folder, or delete files by specific file type, etc.
  • Ability to configure the Send To submenu option in Explorer.
  • Ability to enable/disable commands on the context menu that were added by other applications.

I really like FileMenu Tools because it allows you to accomplish some pretty complicated tasks that would be very tedious to complete without it! Here are some of the options you can add to the context menu:

Synchronize Folders – Synchronizes two folders. It is possible configure the synchronization type (unidirectional, bidirectional, etc.) and the file types which you want to have synchronized.

filemenu tools

Extended Delete – Need to delete all the PDFs on your immediately? This item deletes recursively specific file types from a folder. The file types are specified with wildcards, for example: *.txt, *.t??, etc.

delete files

Split and Join File – Splits the selected file into various parts and then rejoins the parts which were previously split. If you’re looking for a file splitter, you can get that plus a ton more features using this program! If you’re looking for just a file splitter, you can check out a post I wrote a while back.

split file

Copy Name – I like this utility as it copies to the clipboard the name of the all selected elements. So if you want to get a list of all files in a folder into a text file, you can simply select them, right-click and choose Copy Name.

Change Time – Changes the creation time, the last access time, and the last write time of the selected elements. If a folder is selected, it is possible change the time recursively for all files and folders underneath.

Size of Folders – Displays the size of the folders. Quickly see how large a folder is using this utility.

Shred Files – Lets you shred the selected files definitely so it is impossible to recovery the files with recovering tools.

right click menu

Overall, it’s a great freeware application that has a ton of features. If you’re looking for a way to customize the right-click menu in Explorer, then this is the ultimate tool for that purpose! It basically combines many smaller apps into one integrated all-in-one utility! Enjoy! Source De.licio.us

[tags]context menu, windows context menu, right click context menu, context menu editor, vista context menu, add context menu, custom context menu, change context menu[/tags]

 

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Comments

10 Responses to “Customize the right-click context menu in Windows XP and Vista”

  1. Nirmal said on : December 27th, 2007 at 3:47 am

    Nice review and a good product, I had done a smaller review. :-)


  2. akishore said on : December 28th, 2007 at 4:38 pm

    Nirmal, yeah this is a really cool tool. It’s so easy to customize the right-click context menu in Windows using this app!


  3. Fabio said on : May 23rd, 2008 at 2:37 am

    This software can only enable/disable commands on the context menu, isn’t possible to edit.


  4. distinguished said on : August 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm

    mmm, good software. But the most important think, how can we do this without any program? Or, how can we do that from registry?


  5. Art said on : March 2nd, 2009 at 11:10 am

    Great article. Google got me to you, and you got me to EXACTLY the utility I needed. THANK YOU!


  6. TechNald said on : March 11th, 2009 at 3:21 am

    this is a cool program! thanks for sharing!


  7. bjay said on : March 17th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

    this info is awesome!!! the timing for me could not be better! i had some serious probs with my computer and the info really gave me the traction i needed.


  8. vacationer said on : September 23rd, 2009 at 7:42 pm

    I’m using Windows 7 64bit
    also using Photoshop a lot so I need a command Right Click / Edit -> Photoshop

    From Microsoft Paint to Photoshop (or any other soft) u can change that way:

    1. Open up the registry editor (Regedit.exe) as an administrator
    2. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT -> SystemFileAssociations -> image -> shell -> edit -> command
    3. Double click on Default (on right window) and change path to whatever u want
    4. OK
    5. enjoy

    print value is next to edit

    If u need more values “Edit with…” or “Open with” with different soft then do this:

    1. Open up the registry editor (Regedit.exe) as an administrator
    2. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT -> * -> Shell
    3. New -> Key (name Edit with Photoshop)
    4. New -> Key (name command)
    5. Double click on Default (on right window) and show path to whatever u want and %1
    should be like this: “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe” %1
    6. OK
    7. enjoy

    U can add as many as u need “Edit with…”


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  1. Add and remove items from the Windows Explorer right-click menu Says:

    [...] I wrote about a free program called File Menu Tools that lets you customize the right-click menu in Explorer. It’s a good program, but it has a bit too much going on and can be quite confusing for [...]

    December 29th, 2008 at 5:30 am
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  2. Susan Says:

    How can I edit the right-click context menu in Windows 7?

    January 10th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
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