Windows Explorer's
right-click context menu is one of the most basic of all XP tools; it
provides many shortcuts for whenever you want to take action on a
file or a folder. But the right-click menu is missing several basic
options, such as choosing a specific folder to which you want to move
or copy the file you've highlighted, instead of just
cutting or copying the file. And when you install new applications,
they have a nasty habit of adding their own options that
you'll rarely use in the right-click menu.
The end result: a right-click context menu cluttered with options and
lacking several basic useful ones. But you can extend the power of
the menu with these four hacks.
Add Copy To Folder and Move To Folder Context Menu Options
I spend a lot of time copying and
moving files between folders. More often than not, when I click a
file in Explorer, I want to copy or move it to another folder. That
means I spend a good deal of time dragging files around or copying
and pasting them.
But with a Registry hack, you can save yourself
time: you can add Copy To Folder and Move To Folder options to the
right-click context menu. When you choose one of the options from the
menu, you browse to any place on your hard disk to copy or move the
file to, and then send the file there. To add the option, run the
Registry Editor and go
to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
shellex tells you it's a shell
extension key that lets you customize the user shell or the
interface. Create a new key called CopyTo. Set the value to
{C2FBB630-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}. Create
another new key called Move To. Set the value to
{C2FBB631-2971-11d1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}. Exit the
Registry. The changes should take effect immediately. The Copy To
Folder and Move To Folder options will appear. When you right-click a
file and choose one of the options, you'll be able
to move or copy the file using a dialog box like the one shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Specifying a destination using the Copy To Folder option
Add and Remove Destinations for the Send To Option
The
right-click context menu does have one useful option, Send To, which
allows you to send the file to any one of a list of programs or
locations—for example, to a drive, program, or folder.
It would be nice to edit that list, adding new locations and programs
and taking away existing ones that you never use. How locations and
programs show up on the menu appears to be somewhat of a mystery,
but, in fact, it's easy to hack. Go to
C:\Documents and Settings\<User
Name>\SendTo, where <User
Name> is your username. The folder will be filled with
shortcuts to all the locations you find on your Send To context menu.
To remove an item from the Send To menu, delete the shortcut from the
folder. To add an item to the menu, add a shortcut to the folder by
highlighting the folder, choosing File → New →
Shortcut, and following the instructions for creating a shortcut. The
new setting will take effect immediately; you don't
have to exit Windows Explorer for it to go into effect.
Open the Command Prompt from the Right-Click Menu
I began
computing in the days of DOS, and I still can't give
up the command prompt. When it comes to doing down-and-dirty tasks
like mass deleting or renaming of files, nothing beats it. I find
myself frequently switching back and forth between Windows Explorer
and the command prompt.
Often, when using Windows Explorer, I want to open the command prompt
at the folder that's my current location. That takes
too many steps: opening a command prompt and then navigating to my
current folder. However, there's a quicker way: you
can add an option to the right-click context menu that will open a
command prompt at your current folder. For example, if you were to
right-click the C:\My Stuff folder, you could
then choose to open a command prompt at C:\My
Stuff.
To add the option, run the Registry Editor
, then go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folder/Shell.
Create a new key called Command Prompt. For the
default value, enter whatever text you want to appear when you
right-click a folder—for example, Open Command
Prompt. Create a new key beneath the Command
Prompt key called Command. Set the
default value to Cmd.exe /k pushd %L. That value
will launch Cmd.exe, which is the XP command
prompt. The /k switch puts the prompt into
interactive mode. That is, it lets you issue commands from the
command prompt; the command prompt isn't being used
to issue only a single command and then exit. The
pushd command stores the name of the current
directory, and %L uses that name to start the
command prompt at it. Exit the Registry. The new menu option will
show up immediately. Note that it won't appear when
you right-click a file; it shows up only when you right-click a
folder.
TIP
While many of us like fussing around with the Registry rather than
doing things the easy way, there's also a way to add
this option to your right-click context menu without editing the
Registry. Download and install a free copy of
Microsoft's Open Command Window Here
PowerToy from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp.
Many other PowerToys are on that page as well, and we cover them in
other places in the book.
Clean Up the Open With Option
When you
right-click a file, one of the menu options is Open With, which
provides a list of programs for you to open the file with. This list
changes according to the type of file you're
clicking. Depending on the file type, the list can get long because
programs frequently add themselves to this list when you install
them. Making things worse, there are times when the listed programs
aren't applicable. For example, do you really want
to open a .bmp bitmap graphics file with
Microsoft Word? I think not.
You can clean up the Open With list by using a Registry hack. Run the
Registry Editor and go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts.
Look for the file extension whose Open With list you want to edit and
find its OpenWithList
subkey—HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.bmp\OpenWithList,
for example. The subkey will have an alphabetical list of
String values. Open each value and examine the
value data. It will be the name of one of the programs on the Open
With list (Winword.exe, for example). Delete any
entry you don't want to appear.
Don't delete the value data; delete the
String value listing. In other words, if the value
data for the aString value is
Winword.exe, delete the entire string rather than
just the value data. Exit the Registry.
Microsoft's Win95 sendto powertool didn't have this side-effect. Is there some way to stop this happening?