We’ll also point you toward how to add some more useful commands.
Let’s get started.
Remove “Shell” Items
Let’s take a look at one item as an example.
I use theVLCvideo player.
I never use that and would rather it not be on my context menu.
I spotted theAddtoPlaylistVLCkey while browsing through theshellkey looking for items to remove.
Items under the regularshellkey are usually really easy to spot and deal with.
We have a few options on how to handle this.
We could just delete thatAddToPlaylistVLCkey entirely, and that would remove the item from the context menu.
The second option is to block the key instead of deleting it.
Name the new string value “LegacyDisable.”
As soon as you create theLegacyDisablevalue, the change should be immediate.
You also have a third option.
Name the new string value “Extended.”
Now, it will only appear if you right-choose a folder while holding Shift.
You’ll need to handle those types of keys just a bit differently.
Here, we’re going to be working with theDropboxExtkey inside theContextMenuHandlerskey.
When Dropbox is installed, it adds a “Move to Dropbox” command to the context menu.
you could’t use the tricks with theLegacyDisableandExtendedstring values we described above with shellex items.
it’s possible for you to only delete or disable them.
These items are stored elswhere than the common locations we’ve already looked at.
Why would you want to do this?
Well, you probably wouldn’t, but it’s an easy example to look at here.
Other applications may add different types of commands you don’t need.
Yep, those work here, too.
Instead of editing the Registry, you could download two tools from NirSoft to clean up your context menu.
Because one of them handles regular shell items and one handles shellex items.
Related:How Do I Know if Im Running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows?
Start by downloading both the tools.
The first tool isShellMenuView, which handles regular shell items.
The second tool isShellExView, which handles shellex items.
Scroll down toward the bottom of both those pages to find the download links.
The tools both work with pretty much any version of Windows from 98 all the way through 10.
After downloading and extracting the tool, double-smack the EXE file to run it.
It’s a portable tool, so there’s no installation.
In the ShellMenuView window, just browse down the list until you find the item you want to disable.
This one works the exactly the same way as the first tool.
When you install Windows, some items are added to the “Send To” menu by default.
Others get added over time as you install different apps.
If you’ve ever wished you could declutter that menu, it’s your lucky day!
To start with, you could actually add just about anyapplicationorshortcutyou want to the context menu.
And we’ve covered a bunch of them.
So what are you waiting for?
Time to get started making those context menus more useful!
