How add context menu item to Windows Explorer for folders

user_142102 0
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I have found out how to add right-click context menu items to files on Windows Explorer, by adding keys to the registry. I.e. I can right-click on a file in Explorer and run a custom app against that file.

I would like to do the same for a folder and have not found a way to do that (yet). I see articles on creating/writing custom context menu handlers, but I would rather not go there.

I have found an article here on how to add cascading context menu items to the Desktop and to the "Computer" in Explorer, but this does not work for any folder.

I would like to be able to add my custom app to the context menu and have it work on both files and folders. Is there a way to do this without writing a context menu handler?

I found the solution in the below article, which describes how to do this via the registry for files, as well as for folders:

The following two articles provided additional info and options:

windows-shell-extension-menu contextmenu explorer
5 Answers

Found a cleaner, easier and faster solution: create a text file, fill it with these contents, update it to your needs, save with .reg suffix and launch it (it does not need administrator priviliges because it accesses user-part of the registry):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Setup context menu item for click on right panel:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\directory\Background\shell\MenuItemNameBackground\command]
@="C:\\yourpath\\executable.exe \"%1\""

; Optional: specify an icon for the item:   
; HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\directory\Background\shell\MenuItemNameBackground]
;"icon"="C:\\yourpath\\appicon.ico"

; Optional: specify a position in the menu
; HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\directory\Background\shell\MenuItemNameBackground]
;"position"="Bottom"

; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

; Setup context menu item for click on folders tree item:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\directory\shell\MenuItemNamePanel\command]
@="C:\\yourpath\\executable.exe \"%1\""

; Optional: specify an icon for the item:   
; [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\directory\shell\MenuItemNamePanel]
;"icon"="C:\\yourpath\\appicon.ico"

; Optional: specify a position in the menu
; [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\directory\shell\MenuItemNamePanel]
;"position"="Top"

In this way you can also have a backup of your configuration: just save the .reg file in a safe place. If you manually edit the registry after launching the file, right-click and slect "export".

Beware of double backspaces in path: \\

user_16356700

The only good solution I found a really working is : https://superuser.com/questions/1097054/shell-context-menu-registry-extension-doesnt-work-when-default-program-is-other

Add keys in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\your.extension\shell\command Modify the last key with the command you wanna do.

For my purpose it was :

"C:\Program Files (x86)\GPSBabel\gpsbabel.exe" -r -i gpx -f "%1" -x simplify,count=1000 -o gpx -F "%1.gpx"

If I export the it I get a .reg :

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.gpx\shell\Simplify gpx\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\GPSBabel\\gpsbabel.exe\" -r -i gpx -f \"%1\" -x simplify,count=1000 -o gpx -F \"%1.gpx\""
user_24449480

Open command prompt [run as administrator] and execute this command

reg add "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Refi2\command" /d "powershell.exe -noexit -command Set-Location -literalPath '%V'"
  • -d : value to execute[app name exe].
  • -v : creates a new subkey inside the command key.
  • -f : to forcefully override the key if already exists.
  • powershell.exe -noexit -command Set-Location -literalPath '%V' instead of this you can specify path of your exe.

For more details about more features run:-

reg add /?
user_120756350
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