A nice way to make you more effective while you work at the computer is to have convenient right click features handy.   Adding Items to the right click menu of Files and Folders is also fairly simple using the Registry. It just involves the creation of a few new keys for each item you wish to add. You edit the same keys used for removing items.

Let’s say you wanted to add Notepad to the right click menu of all your files or folders.   To add it to the folders menu, open Regedit and browse to this key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTFolder

Click the + sign next to Folder and expand it so that the Shell key is visible. Right click the Shell key and choose New>Key and name the key Notepad or whatever else you’d prefer (whatever the key is named is what will appear in the right-click menu). Now right click the new key you made and create another key named Command. Then, in the right hand pane, double click "Default" and enter Notepad.exe as the value. Exit the registry, refresh, and right click any folder. Notepad should now be on the context menu.

For files, go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*

Expand the * key and see if a Shell key exists. If it does exist, follow the same procedure as for folders. If it does not exist, you’ll have to create a new Shell first. Just right click the * key and choose New>Key and name it Shell. Then right click the Shell key and continue on the same way you did for adding items to the right click menu of folders. Once done, Notepad should appear as an option in the right click menu of all your files.

Tags | General, Microsoft, Windows XP