[AIO] Complete Tutorial to Customize Desktop Context Menu in Windows XP Using Resource Hacker
You might be using the Desktop context menu since a long time in Windows but did you know that you can customize it to your needs? You can add/remove items from the context menu, you can re-arrange items, you can group those items, you can add your name in the context menu, you can add an image in context menu, you can add your favorite application shortcut in context menu, you can enable “View” menu in context menu. Phew… There are lots of things which you can do with Desktop context menu.
So this tutorial will help you in fully customize the Desktop context menu in Windows XP. So tighten your seat belts and get ready for our journey.
The default Windows XP Desktop context menu looks as following:
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and following are a few examples of the customized Desktop context menu which you’ll get after following this tutorial:
So without wasting any time, lets start the tutorial:
Table of Contents
- How to Edit the Desktop Context Menu?
- Customizing Menu Items Text:
- Removing Menu Items:
- Grouping Menu Items:
- Adding Image in Desktop Context Menu:
- Adding Your Favorite Application Shortcut in Desktop Context Menu:
- Enable “View” Menu in Desktop Context Menu:
- Add Your Name or Any Desired String in Desktop Context Menu:
First question comes how will you edit the whole Desktop context menu? To edit it, you’ll need Resource Hacker. If you don’t know about Resource hacker, then visit this link.
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To customize the Desktop context menu, we’ll need to edit “%windir%\System32\Shell32.dll” file in Resource hacker. When you’ll open “Shell32.dll” file in Resource hacker, you’ll see various folders in left-side pane like Bitmap, Menu, String Table. Dialog, etc. We’ll only need to edit “Menu” and “String Table” folders for our task.
To change any menu item text, just replace its name to your desired name. e.g. I have changed almost all menu items names in the given screenshots, Refresh has been renamed to Reload Icons, New has been renamed to Create, Properties has been renamed to Personalize, etc.
Almost all menu items name can be changed in “Menu -> 215“. So go to “215” menu in Resource Hacker and change your desired menu item text enclosed in “” and then click on “Compile Script” button. For example, To change “Refresh” to “Reload Icons”:
Change following line:
MENUITEM “R&efresh”, 28931, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
To:
MENUITEM “Rel&oad Icons”, 28931, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
To change “Properties” text, you’ll need to edit “Menu -> 220“.
A few menu items like “Lock Web Items on Desktop”, “Show Desktop Icons” and “Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard” are stored in “Menu -> 218“.
To change “New” menu item’s text, go to “String Table -> 1895” and in right-side pane, change text of “30315” line.
If you want to remove any particular menu item, then simply select its line of code and delete it and then click on “Compile Script” button. For example, if you want to delete “Refresh” from context menu, then delete following line from “Menu -> 215”:
MENUITEM “R&efresh”, 28931, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
You can also group menu items to save some menu space and to make it more organized. To group menu items, you’ll need to add some extra code.
First add following lines of code at the place where you want to show the main group:
POPUP “Put_Group_Label”, 0, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
}
Replace “Put_Group_Label” with any desired text which you want to show in context menu.
Now you’ll need to cut paste the desired menu items code between the curly braces.
For example, as in the screenshot I have grouped “View” and “Arrange Icons as” menu items in “Icons Menu”. What I did, I pasted the above mentioned code just before the “View” menu item code line and then moved the lines of “View” and “Arrange Icons as” menu items between curly braces.
Its a bit complex task and require some practice.
To add an image in context menu, visit following tutorial:
Add an Image in Desktop/Explorer Context Menu in Windows XP
You can also add any favorite application shortcut to context menu, like Firefox, Media Player, Winamp, etc. To know about it, visit following tutorial:
Add Your Favorite Program Shortcut in Desktop Context Menu in Windows XP
“View” menu is not present in Desktop context menu. After applying following tutorial you’ll be able to get “View” menu in Desktop context menu just like Windows Vista:
How to enable VIEW Menu on Desktop in Windows XP
As you can see in the screenshot, I have put my name at top in context menu. You can also do the same with the help of following tutorial:
How to Add Your Name in Desktop Context Menu in Windows XP?
PS: If you face problems while changing the menu items text, grouping them, enabling view menu, etc, then you can use my ready-made code for it.
Just copy following code and replace the existing code in “Menu -> 215” with this new code. Click on “Compile Script” button and you’ll get almost the same look as shown in screenshot. Now you can change the text, etc easily:
215 MENUEX
LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US
{
POPUP “”, 0, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
MENUITEM “!*~.VISHAL.~*!”, 33333, MFT_STRING, MFS_GRAYED | MFS_DEFAULT
POPUP “&Icons Menu”, 1, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
POPUP “&Show Icons As”, 0, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
MENUITEM “Filmstri&p”, 28719, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “T&humbnails”, 28717, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “Tile&s”, 28718, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “Ico&ns”, 28713, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “&List”, 28715, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “&Details”, 28716, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
}
POPUP “Sort &Icons By”, 28673, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
MENUITEM “”, 30208, MFT_SEPARATOR, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “Show in &Groups”, 30209, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “&Auto Arrange”, 28753, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “A&lign to Grid”, 28756, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
}
}
POPUP “&Clipboard Menu”, 1, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{
MENUITEM “&Paste”, 28698, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “Paste &Shortcut”, 28700, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “&Undo”, 28699, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
}
MENUITEM “Rel&oad Icons”, 28931, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “Media Player”, 28785, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “”, 65535, MFT_SEPARATOR, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “Customize This &Folder…”, 28722, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED
MENUITEM “”, 65535, MFT_SEPARATOR, MFS_ENABLED
}
}
NOTE 1: If you face problems while saving the file after editing in resource hacker, then make sure you have disabled WFP (Windows File Protection) service using WFP Patcher or use Replacer to replace the file.
NOTE 2: If you get “Cannot create file” error message while saving the file, please check following tutorial:
How to Fix “Cannot Create File” Error Message While Saving Files in Resource Hacker?
I want to remove these from my Windows 7 desktop context menu:
Refresh
View
Paste
Paste shortcut
New
Sort by
Can you show me a screenshot what code I have to remove?
^^ You just need to remove the POPUP{ } and MENUITEM codelines which contain the items which you want to remove.
how do i remove the “VIEW” , “SORT BY” and “NEW” menus in windows 7??
cuz there is no MENUITEM in shell32.dll… need your help badly… pls… T.T
^^ Please check following:
https://www.askvg.com/list-of-windows-7-system-files-to-be-hacked-using-resource-hacker/
it worked!! thanks man… really really thank you.. 🙂
hey its me again… got another problem…
how do i add separator here?? oi59.tinypic.com/2cmum1j.jpg
Q.Q
^^ A separator is added using following code:
MENUITEM “”, 65535, MFT_SEPARATOR, MFS_ENABLED
i did that already… but no separator shows up…
how about a registry tweak do you know how?? and would that work??
^^ The code always works. There is no Registry tweak for XP to add separator.
Work perfectly in window XP, what about window 7, which .dll file is need to be hacked using resurce hacker???
please add at your tutorials the file themeui.dll because I bet that many people want to customize display proporties box in windows xp
Windows 7 it is necessary to edit the file in system32 and syswow64’s en-us folder’s shell.dll.mui
Hi,
I need to remove the refresh option from the desktop context menu. I am using Windows 10 x64 (build 14393.576). I see no folder named as “menu”. I know this guide is for Windows XP. So isn’t it possible to remove it through resource hacker? Could you please suggest some other way to remove the refresh option from desktop context menu?
^^ You’ll need to edit shell32.dll.mui file. Check following:
https://www.askvg.com/list-of-windows-7-system-files-to-be-hacked-using-resource-hacker/
Thank you so much mate. You’re really an expert! I am following your website since 2011 and the very first guide I used was “Transform Windows XP to Windows 7 without transformation pack.”. That’s when I found your website and you’ve helped me a lot so many times till date (you may not remember as I used to post using different names, “Prakhar” being one of them and most used xD).
I have successfully removed the Refresh option from the desktop using your answer on a Digit.in forum.
So thank you so much for helping me every time and good luck for your future. Why don’t you apply for a job at Microsoft?
^^ Thanks for your nice words. I love those good old days of Windows XP and Resource Hacker. 😉
Thread necromancy : When we use classictheme.exe in Windows 10 build 1903 there is no flightedfeatures registry hack and we get skinny textless context menus .so how do we reshack away that immersive menu and add back the old one any ideas?