Remove applications from the Right-click Menu – 1

Scenario : You have noticed that your Context menu has grown too long with options that are not useful to you. Also sometimes clicking on the folder causes your system to hang for atleast 5-10 seconds. What to do ??

Solution : If you are like me and like to install a lot of applications just to screw around with them, you will be shocked to find out that your context menu has many applications. Most of them will not be even useful. Some softwares allow you to disable the context menu from its options settings. But some of them don’t have the options and not allow you to remove the applications from the context menu. In fact, many of them do not care to remove the context menu entries even on uninstalling them. 😦

These problems are caused by a bad context menu handler. A context menu handler is a shell extension handler that adds commands to an existing context menu (Example: cut, copy, paste, print, etc). A poorly coded context menu handler may be causing any of the above symptoms. As context menu handlers can be added in different areas (file class, folder, allfilesystemobjects, HKCR\* registry keys a part of the list is tabulated below), it’s a difficult task for an end-user to pinpoint which shell extension is causing the problem.

Registry Key	Description
HKCR \*\shellex\contextmenuhandlers	Files
HKCR\AllFileSystemObjects\shellex\ contextmenuhandlers	Files and file folders
HKCR\Folder\shellex\contextmenuhandlers	Folders
HKCR\Directory\shellex\contextmenuhandlers	File Folders
HKCR\<ProgID>\shellex\contextmenuhandlers	File class
HKCR\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers	Desktop

First, isolate the problem. Observe when the problem occurs. While right-clicking a particular file type? While right-clicking Folders? While right-clicking all file types? As said earlier, context menu handlers can load from any of the above areas:

If any of the symptoms occur when you deal with a folder, then you may need to inspect the context menu handlers loaded in these areas (AllFileSystemObjects, Folder, Directory). If it’s only for a .txt file, inspect the file class of .txt file (HKCR\txtfile). Open Registry Editor and backup the selected branch, delete the context menu handlers one-by-one.

Don’t worry!! In my subsequent articles, I will help you solve this doozie so that atleast this area of your life is handled!!! 😛