How to Add Group Policy Editor to Control Panel
If you find yourself using the Group Policy Editor all the time, you might have wondered why it doesn’t show up in the Control Panel along with all the other tools. After many hours of registry hacking, I’ve come up with a registry tweak to let you do just that.
You can’t manually make the registry tweak yourself using regedit.exe because there’s no way to add a default item of type REG_EXPAND_SZ, but I’ve provided a registry hack download for you.
Please note that this does not work with the Home editions of either Vista or XP because they don’t come with Group Policy Editor.
Windows Vista
After installation, you will find the new item by first choosing Additional Options in Control Panel.
You should now see Group Policy Editor in the list.
Windows XP
You will have to switch to the Classic View in order to see the icon in XP.
And now it will show up in the list of icons.
Installation
Just download and extract and double-click on AddGroupPolicyToControlPanel.reg to add the icon. There is also another registry script that will remove the items.
Download AddGroupPolicyToControlPanel Registry Hack
Encrypt / Decrypt Options to Windows 7 / Vista Right-Click Menu
If you use the built-in file encryption in Windows 7 or Vista, you might be interested in adding an option to the right-click menu to more easily encrypt and decrypt your files, rather than having to use the file properties dialog.
Adding this to the menu couldn’t be simpler – there’s only a single registry key to add.
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box, and then find the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
In the right-hand pane, create a new 32-bit DWORD value called EncryptionContextMenu and give it a value of 1.
Now when you right-click on a file, you’ll see a new option called Encrypt.
When you choose this option, you’ll receive the following dialog, asking if you want to encrypt just the file, or also the parent folder. You can also choose just the file as the default.
Once the files are encrypted, you’ll notice that the title of the file is now green, indicating that it’s been encrypted. The right-click option will also now change to Decrypt.
Definitely much simpler… makes me wonder why this wasn’t a built-in option.
Download AddEncryptionMenu.zip Registry Hack
How to Add Disk Cleanup to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive
Using the Hack
After installation, you can simply right-click on a drive and choose “Disk Cleanup” from the menu:
If you are using Windows 7 or Vista, you’ll be asked whether you want to clean up your files or all files…
And then disk cleanup will begin:
Manual Registry Hack
Open up regedit through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell
Create a new key called “diskcleanup” and set the default value to “Disk Cleanup”. Then create another key underneath it called “command” and set the value to the following:
cleanmgr.exe /d %1
The change should be immediate, just right-click on the drive and you should see the new menu item.
Downloadable Registry Hack
Simply download, extract, and double-click on DiskCleanupDriveMenu.reg to enter the information into the registry. You can use the included RemoveDiskCleanupDriveMenu.reg file to reverse the changes.
Download DiskCleanupDriveMenu Registry Hack
How to add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive
After manually applying or downloading the hack, you’ll have a new item on the right-click menu for your drives…
Which will start up the command-line version of Disk Defragmenter (after accepting the UAC prompt)
Manual Registry Hack
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell
Create a new key under shell called “runas”, and then set the (Default) value to “Defragment”. If you want to hide this menu item behind the Shift key right-click menu, then add a new string called Extended with no value.
Next, you’ll need to create a key called “command” and set the default value to the following, which is the command to run defrag with the default options but show verbose output.
defrag %1 -v
You can alternately choose from one of the other defrag switches here if you’d like.
Downloadable Registry Hack
Simply download, extract, and double-click on either AddDefragToDriveMenu.reg (for the regular menu) or AddDefragToExtendedDriveMenu.reg (to hide behind the Shift key). There’s also an included removal script that will remove either one.
Download AddDefragToDriveMenu Registry Hack
How to Add Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu
There’s a registry hack for Windows that will let you add a Copy To Folder or Move To Folder to the right-click menu, which can be very useful when you want to move a file but don’t have the other folder open already.
Right-click on a file:
And up pops a nice dialog that you can use to easily drop a file into the right directory.
Install
Just download, unzip, and double-click on the registry files. You can choose to use the copy to, move to, or both.
Download Copy To / Move To Registry Tweak
There’s a registry hack for Windows that will let you add a Copy To Folder or Move To Folder to the right-click menu, which can be very useful when you want to move a file but don’t have the other folder open already.
Right-click on a file:
And up pops a nice dialog that you can use to easily drop a file into the right directory.
Install
Just download, unzip, and double-click on the registry files. You can choose to use the copy to, move to, or both.
Download Copy To / Move To Registry Tweak
How to Add Control Panel to the Desktop Right-Click Menu in Vista
when you right-click on the desktop you’ll see a new menu item called Control Panel:
Once you select that item, obviously it will immediately open up Control Panel:
Of course you could use the same technique to add any item into the context menu, or you could even use the same location in the registry to remove things like the NVIDIA Control Panel or ATI Control Center from the menu.
Manual Registry Hack
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell
Once you are there, you’ll want to right-click on “shell” and create a new key called Control Panel.
Under that one, you’ll want to right-click and create a new key called “command”.
Select the “command” key on the left-hand side, and then set the (Default) value on the right-hand side to the following:
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL
You should immediately see the new item in your context menu, and it should be working. To remove, simply delete the Control Panel key.
Downloadable Registry Hack
Simply download, extract, and double-click on the AddControlPanelToDesktopMenu.reg file to enter the information into the registry. You should immediately see the new item. To remove, use the included remove script.
Download AddControlPanelToDesktopMenu Registry
How to Add Any Application to the Desktop Right-Click Menu in Vista
We’ve previously written about how to clean up your messy Windows context menu, and recently we’ve written about how to add the Control Panel to the desktop menu, but instead of writing separate articles for each application I’m just going to show you how to add anything to the menu that you’d like.
If you don’t know what we’re talking about, I mean the menu that shows up when you right-click on the desktop:
For today’s lesson we’ll show you how to add Notepad to the menu, but you could add any applications you want instead.
Step 1: Browse to the Registry Key
The first thing you’ll want to do is open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell
The screen should look similar to this one if you are in the right place.
Step 2: Create the Menu Item Key Name
To complete this step we’ll need to create a new key, the name of which is exactly what is going to show up on the desktop menu.
Right-click on the “shell” key, and then choose New \ Key from the menu.
Give the new key the name that you want to show up on the desktop context menu. For this example we’ll be using Notepad.
Optional Step: If you want to assign an “Alt” key to this menu entry for quicker access, you can change the (Default) value on the right and put an & character in front of the key you want to use. For instance, if you wanted to be able to just use the N key to launch Notepad once the desktop context menu pops up, you can do this:
Personally I don’t find this terribly useful since you have to use the mouse to right-click on the desktop… may as well just use the mouse to click the item. Still, for completeness I’ve included it.
Step 3: Create the Command Key
Next you’ll need to create the command key that will actually hold the command used to launch the application. Right-click on the new Notepad key, and then choose New \ Key from the menu.
Give this key the name “command” in lowercase.
Step 4: Add in the Full Application Executable Path
To complete this step you’ll need the full path to the application that you want to launch. You can use Shift + Right-Click to get the Copy as Path menu item to find this more quickly.
Now click on “command” on the left side, and then double-click on the (Default) key in the right side to edit the string value.
Paste in the full path to the executable that you got from the “Copy as Path” step above, or you can put in the full path yourself if you’d like.
Once it’s done, it should look like this:
And right-clicking on the desktop will produce the new menu item… naturally, using this menu item should launch Notepad.
You can add as many applications to the desktop context menu as you’d like
How to Add an Application to the Quick Launch Menu in Vista
The Quick Launch menu is one of the most useful features in Windows, and Vista makes it even easier to add a program to the menu.
For those of you that are total newbies, the quick launch menu is the little icons by the start button:
You can either drag an application to the quick launch bar… or you can right click, and choose Add to Quick Launch:
If the option for “Add to Quick Launch” does not show up, you can hold down the Shift key while right-clicking on it to make the option show up. Note that you could also use Pin to Start Menu…
How to Add a new File Type to Indexing in Windows Vista
Windows Vista has a new built-in searching engine that is completely integrated into the operating system, but not all files are indexed. To add a new file type to be indexed, you just have to follow a couple of steps.
To get to the indexing service panel, just type index into the start menu search box, and hit enter
hit enter.
In the Indexing Options window, click the Advanced button:
Now, type in the new extension and click “Add new extension”
If you want the file contents to be indexed as well, find the file type in the list and make sure you select the “Index Properties and File Contents” radio button.
Take Ownership to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista
Taking ownership of system files or folders in Windows 7 or Vista is not a simple task. Whether you use the GUI or the command line, it takes far too many steps.
Thankfully somebody created a registry hack that will give you a menu item for “Take Ownership” that will handle all the steps for you. (If you are the person that originally made this script, let me know and I’ll give you credit)
Here’s what the new right-click menu will look like after installing this registry hack.
Install
Download and unzip the files contained in the zipfile. Double-click the InstallTakeOwnership.reg file and click through the prompts. No reboot necessary.
Uninstall
Double-click the RemoveTakeOwnership.reg file and click through the prompts. No reboot necessary.
“Run as Administrator” to Any File Type in Windows 7 or Vista
Have you ever tried to unzip a file to the Program Files directory in Windows 7 or Vista? You’ll get all sorts of permission denied errors, and generally be unsuccessful. So how do we open up the zipfile as an administrator? For that matter, how do you open any file as administrator?
There’s a simple registry tweak that will let us specify the action to run as administrator for a file type. Unfortunately you’ll have to make the tweak manually, but we’ll walk you through it.
Manual Registry Tweak
Open regedit through the start menu search or run box and then browse down to the following key, substituting “.zip” for the file extension that you are looking for. (Note that the find dialog helps here)
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.zip
Now you want to take note of the Data value for the “(Default)” item. This tells you which application is registered to handle this file type, and also where we need to go in the registry next.
For this example, since the data field in this example says “WinRAR.ZIP” we’ll need to browse down to the following registry key. (again, the find dialog helps here)
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\WinRAR.ZIP\shell\open\command
What we want to do is copy the shell\open\command section to shell\runas\command. The easiest way to do that is right-click on “command” and then choose Export.
Now open up the exported registry file in Notepad and change “open” to “runas” where indicated below:
Double-click on the file to enter the information into the registry. Now you’ll see that the “runas” section is identical to the “open” section:
And now you can right-click on a file and open it as administrator:
This example used WinRAR, but this should work for almost any filetype or application. You’ll just have to change where you look in the registry.