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Customize the right-click menu in Windows Explorer

1 January 2000 by Snakefoot | Comment » | Trackback Off
Windows creates by default several actions for the different file-types (JPG,TXT,HTM,etc.) that it knows. These actions are shown in the context-menu when right clicking a file (or folder), and depending of the file-type a different set of actions are available.

It is possible to add your own useful actions to the context-menu, when right clicking a file (or folder).
Customize the context menu for a file type in WinXP/2k/Me
  1. Open My Computer -> Tools-menu -> Folder Options...-item -> File Types-tab
  2. Find the wanted File Type (Ex. .DOC) and press "Advanced", and it will show the actions currently associated with the file-type
  3. Press "New" to add another action to be shown when right click that file-type
Customize the context menu for a file type in Win9x/WinNT4
  1. Open My Computer -> View-menu -> Folder Options...-item -> File Types-tab
  2. Find the wanted File Type (Ex. .DOC) and press "Edit", and it will show the actions currently associated with the file-type
  3. Press "New" to add another action to be shown when right click that file-type
Ideas for adding new actions
  • Unzip all files inside a Folder
    Add "Unzip All" to the "Folder"-filetype, which decompresses all zip-files within the folder:
    • Using 7Zip command line tool:

      C:\7Zip\7z x "%1\*.zip" -o"%1\UNZIPPED\" -r

    • Using WinZip command line tool (WZunzip):

      C:\WinZip\Wzunzip.exe -d "%1\*.zip" "%1\UNZIPPED\"

    • Using Pkware command line tool (Pkunzip):

      C:\PKZip\Pkunzip.exe -d %1\*.ZIP -o %1\UNZIPPED\

  • Mount ISO image
    Add "Mount Image" to the "ISO"-filetype, which mounts the image using Daemon Tools

    C:\D-Tools\Daemon.exe -mount 0,"%1"

  • Open Command Prompt here
    Add "Command Prompt Here" to the "Folder"-filetype:
Related Utilities to modify the Explorer context menu
Related Extend context menu with Move To and Copy To options
Related Extend context menu with Copy Path
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Updated: 2 December 2009

Comments:

Comment by Frederic - 3 December 2008 @ 7:10 Reply

Useful tip but how to do that programatically so that the auto setup will automatically create the contextual menu for a given file extension?

Comment by Snakefoot - 4 December 2008 @ 20:43 Reply

Frederic wrote:
how to do that programatically so that the auto setup will automatically create the contextual menu for a given file extension?

When you say auto setup, do you mean during Windows installation ? or during the install of an application ?

One can extend the context menu using the registry, and save these registry settings in a file and apply them during the install of Windows.

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