Remove items from Right Click context menus

I want to remove about 8 items from the right click context menu either in Explorer or while on the Desktop.

I read an article that said all you had to do was edit the Registry by doing a search for ShellNew and remove the entire key if you didn't want any of them. I did this several times and did find all of them at least 5 times. But they are still there.

What is the secret for getting rid of these items?

Thanks.

 

This Might NOT Help, But . . . .

Hi, VegasPat !

This might not be of much help, but here goes.

First of all, there are a whole LOT of people here at WindowsBBS who are a LOT more qualified to help you than I am. I do want to give you a little insight as to what I tried to do when faced with "Context Menu" problems.

A while back when I was wondering what to do about my computer's "Context Menu" bloat, I went looking for solutions. Believe it or not, I found quite a few opinions and so-called "solutions ". Most of which involved messing with the Registry, which I am loath to do. Apparently, if I understand correctly, there are any number of locations in the registry that can make changes in various context menus. Also, in some cases, there seems to be more than one location that affects some menus. That makes me even more cautious about mucking around in my computer's Registry.

Let's put it this way: I know enough about computers to get myself INTO trouble, but not enough to get myself back OUT! So I'm not really keen on compounding the problem.

Since I didn't want to mess with the Registry myself, I went looking for some batch (.bat) or command (.cmd) files created by experts that might apply to a specific Context Menu item. I was able to find and try a few of those. One place you might want to check out is Kellys-KornerXP.Com (Hope I got the address right).

Also, I found four free "Context Menu" related applications. I tried them, but for the life of me, I was so worried about screwing up my computer, that I really didn't do very much with them. One of them, though, I did take a shine to. It's called "Mmm ". It is fairly simple and easy to use, it looks good, it uses minimal resources, and best of all, while it does make some changes, it does NOT delete anything. It only hides it from view.

I might not be very brave about working on my computer, but my advice would be, go slow, do your research, apply any changes you make with caution, and whatever you do, BACKUP your Registry first !!!

However it goes, Good Luck !!!

ROBIN
Eugene, Oregon USA

 

Pete.

I went thru the entire HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers and did NOT find one item that I was looking for.

Your screen shot made it easier to make sure I was looking in the right spot but I could not find a thing.

I have Briefcase,Bitmap Image,Wordpad Document,Rich Text Document, Savings Bond Wizard Document, NeroMediaPlayer media files,AveryDesignPro2000 Document and the Compressed(zipped) Folder.

I don't need any of them and just want them out of there.

Any other ideas?

 

Robin,

You gave some good advice and I try to never mess with the Registry but this one is driving me nuts.

Even though I am using Vista most of the time I wanted to clean that one downstairs up. I know I did it some years ago and don't know why it's such a chore now.

Thanks.

 

I recommend that you use TweakUI for the purpose. It will remove the element of uncertainty and danger due to manual Registry editing. You'll find the complete list in TweakUI at Mt Computer > Templates.

If you insist on doing it manually, here's something I stored that will aid you:

When you right-click on the desktop and select New, a list of default templates you can open up are listed.
To remove items from that list:

Start Regedit
Search for the string ShellNew
This should bring you to HKey_Classes_Root
For the items you want to remove, simply rename the ShellNew command string (eg, right click the word Command, select Rename, and place a Z in front of the existing).
Renaming is safer that deleting and easily reversable.
If there is no Command string on any item, do not alter anything else. The program affected will be listed in the Command string, Be sure you have the one you want.
Continue searching for the items you want to remove by pressing F3
Do not go beyond the HKey_Classes_Root area.
You do not need to reboot for the change to take effect

I used that method until TweakUI came along so take your choice. I like the easy way.