Some Common Questions
Before tackling how to add menu options, here are a few interesting or common questions I've received:
Question:
"How do I remove unwanted options that appear on right-click menus after installing software?"
Answer:
Usually, all that is required is to remove the appropriate key under the shellex\ContextMenuHandlers key in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for file type "*". For example:
In the sample shown, deleting "gvim" will remove the right-click options for the GNU Vim program I installed. I'd recommend making a back up of the key data in case you want to put it back in later. If you don't find the correct ContextMenuHandlers item under "*" you could try looking under specific file extensions. You could also try searching the registry for the text that appears on the menu. When searching, don't forget to preface any character that is underlined in the menu with an "&". The ampersand is typically used to identify the character to underline when a menu entry's text is saved in the registry.
Question:
"Can I add a 'Search' option to Internet Explorer's right-click menu?"
Answer:
I've written a script to do just that:
http://www.jfitz.com/tips/search.htm
Question:
"Can I disable [insert menu option here] in Internet Explorer's right-click menu?"
Answer:
Non-standard items can be removed from the MenuExt registry key. This can usually be found here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MenuExt
After removing the offending key, restart IE and the menu item should be gone.
With regard to the default behavior of Internet Explorer, (i.e. the menu items that don't appear in MenuExt) there are a number of restrictions you can place on newer versions of the browser.
One of the best online sources for information about the various options is at:
http://registry.winguides.com/display.php/442/
You can't specifically disable a single menu item, (at least as far as I'm aware -- there may be some undocumented way around it), but you can make the menu go away completely. This might be useful for shared machines in a "public" environment, where changes made through the menu, (such as setting the computer's background from a web image), could be confusing to other users.
Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Int ernet Explorer\Restrictions
Set a DWORD value:
NoBrowserContextMenu = 1
You can also do this just for specific users if you wish. In this case, make the change under HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
If you export the modified key to a .REG file, (using regedit's export menu option), you can very quickly copy the change to a number of machines. (.REG files open using regedit when double clicked and apply the registry changes they contain. The files themselves are simply text files -- you can verify their contents in notepad or any other editor.)
Modifying the Right-Click Menu
Now on with the show...
First we need to find the location of the program we want to use
(Note: You can also get this information from the "Properties" box if you have a shortcut to the program on your desktop. Otherwise...)
Click on "Find Files or Folders" in the Start Menu
Search for the program you want to add to the right-click menu
Make a note of the folder where the program is found
Some common programs you might like to use are:
Netscape.exe - Netscape Communicator
IExplore.exe - Internet Explorer
WordPad.exe - WordPad
From the Start Menu select "Run"
Enter "regedit"
This runs the Registry Editor
Open the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT "folder"
This opens a long list of file extensions, (.exe, .html, .ini, etc)
Following the extension list, extension groups are listed, ( for example "htmlfile" refers to all files with ".htm" and ".html" extensions, "jpegfile" refers to .jpg and .jpeg files, "giffile" refers to .png files)
Note: To find the extension group associated with a particular extension, click on the extension and note the value in the "Data" field, (on the right side), for the value named "(Default)"
Select the extension, or extension group you wish to modify - typically, you will want to modify an extension group, rather than an individual extension
In this example we want to add a "Netscape" option to all .html and .htm files, so we open the "htmlfile" extension group
Note: we could modify each extension separately if we wished
Right click on the "shell" option
Select "New"
Select "Key"
This creates a new key with a default name
Change the key name to whatever you wish to appear on the right click menu
Now right click on the new key
Select "New"
Select "Key"
This creates a "subkey" of the key we just created
Rename this subkey "command"
Note that in the right hand window the name "Default" and "value not set" appear
Double click on the "Default", (or the small "ab" icon to the left)
This brings up an Edit window which is used to set the default value
The "value" to enter is the name of the program to run
The format of the value field is:
FOLDERNAME\PROGRAMNAME "%1"
In this example its:
E:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\Netscape.exe "%1"
Note: When we use the new menu option, "%1" is replaced with the name of the file we clicked on. This tells Netscape which file to open
Click "OK" to set the default value
This completes the process - Right clicking on any "htmlfile" will now have a "Netscape" option that opens the selected file in Netscape
You can add as many right click options as you wish
In this example, an "Edit" command has also been added which will open the file using WordPad
Note that the menu options are listed in the order in which they were created
The simplest way to reorder the options is to rename the option that you want to appear at the end of the list
To rename a menu option, right click on the key in the Registry Editor and select "Rename"
Rename the key to a temporary name, then rename it back to its original
In the above case, we renamed the "Netscape" option and it now appears below the "Edit" option
Note that you can remove the menu item by deleting the key in the Registry Editor
The "Delete" option is directly above the "Rename" option
Note that to delete the "Netscape" key, you must first delete its "command" subkey
Source
http://www.jfitz.com/tips/rclick_custom.html
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