The context menu is the small window that popup when you right click your mouse. When you right click your mouse on a file/folder, the context menu will show a list of useful options for you to choose. The bad thing is, it is usually not configurable by default. For example, while keeping Firefox as the default browser, you want to open a particular Internet shortcut with Google Chrome. The current configuration of the context menu doesn’t allow you to do so.
Luckily there are several useful tools that allow you to edit your context menu.
1. CMenuEdit
CMenuEdit is a lightweight application (only 69kb in size) that allows you to customize the context menu of Windows Explorer.
The application comes in a zipped file. Once you have extracted the zip file, you will need to run the “install.bat” as administrator and it will install the necessary dll files to your system.
To use CMenuEdit, you just have to right click your mouse and choose “Properties”. You will see a Context Menu tab.
To add a new context entry, first click on the first icon to create a submenu, follow by the second icon to create a command. In the command field, you can specify the action such as open another program, select a file/folder, minimized or maxmized state etc.
Things that you can customize including the name of the submenu and command, add separators, brief description of the command/submenu, attach an icon and select, for a command, an external program, argumenus, working directory and window state.
Download CMenuEdit here
2. ShellMenuView
ShellMenuView is different in that it does not allows you to add entry to your context menu. Instead it scans through your existing list of items in the context menu and display them in a window, you can then choose to enable/disable the entry in the context menu. This is useful for cleaning up your context menu.
The ShellMenuView application does not require any installation and it is fully portable. Simply unzip the file and run the .exe file.
To enable/disable the entry in the context menu, simply scroll down the list to find the entry, right click on it and select “disable/enable selected item”
Download ShellMenuView here
3. FileMenu Tools
If you browse the FileMenu website, you will find very little documentation, but it is surprisingly a very useful (and user-friendly) tool for editing the context menu.
Once you have installed FileMenu Tools, you will have a new entry “FileMenu Tools in your context menu. In it comes with a series of useful commands.
To edit the items, you have to open up the FileMenu Tools application. Here is where you can enable/disable the list of commands in the FileMenu Tools context entry. Just place a check (or remove the check) to enable the command.
In addition, you can also add your new submenu and command. Similarly, you can specify actions such as open a program, copy to folders, delete specific files etc.
Download FileMenu Tools here
4. Fast explorer
Of all the context menu editors mentioned above, Fast Explorer is the best. It comes with a Windows Explorer interface that makes it easy for anyone to edit their context menu. In addition, it also comes with a registry bug that help you to clean up your context menu registry.
At the main screen, you can choose to add a static item or a submenu item. Static items are entries that appear when you right click on the mouse.
The center pane is for you to add new item while the right pane allows you to configure the item.
In addition, Fast Explorer is also able to detect and clean up orphaned context menu items or remove context menu items added by other applications or context menu extensions. This feature is very useful since it enables its users to clean up the context menu registry, without having to manually dig into the registry.
Download Fast Explorer Installer | Fast Explorer Portable
This should round up the list of context menu editor app. I am sure everyone has a different way of utilizing the app. Tell us about it in the comments.
Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.
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