Add “Change Sound”, “Change Cursor”, “System Properties”, “Task Manager” and Many Other Useful Shortcuts in Windows Vista and 7 Desktop Context Menu

Yesterday we posted a tutorial which helps you in adding many useful shortcuts like "Change Wallpaper", "Change Theme", "Change Screen Saver", etc in Windows Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7 Desktop context menu:

Add “Change Wallpaper”, “Change Theme”, “Change Screen Saver” and Many Other Useful Shortcuts in Windows Vista and 7 Desktop Context Menu

Now continuing it, we are posting about a few more useful shortcuts which you can add in Desktop context menu. After following this tutorial, you can get following Desktop context menu under Windows Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7:

You can add all or any of the above shown options in Desktop context menu and can access them by simply right-click on Desktop. It would be very easy and useful.

Its only possible in Windows Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7.

We would be using 2 tricks in this tutorial which we posted about long time back in following tutorials:

Add Your Favorite Application Shortcut in Desktop Context Menu in Windows Vista

Create Shortcuts to Themes, Desktop Background, Screen Saver, Display Settings and More

Windows Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7 have a built-in feature which we revealed long time back. We can put our desired application shortcut in Desktop context menu which was not possible in Windows XP and other older versions.

So in this tutorial, we'll use the same trick to add shortcut in Desktop context menu and will use the shortcut commands to open various tabs present in Desktop Properties window like Theme, Wallpaper, Screen Saver, etc.

So here we start our tutorial:

1. Type regedit in RUN or Startmenu Search box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

3. Now we'll need to create a new key under "Shell" key. Right-click on "Shell" key and select "New -> Key". Give the new key any desired name e.g. "Change Sound" (without quotes).

4. Now we'll need to create another new key. Right-click on the new key which we created in the last step e.g. Change Sound and select "New -> Key". Give the new key name of command.

5. Now select "command" key and in right-side pane, you'll see "Default" String value. Double-click on it and set its value to as following:

control mmsys.cpl,,2

6. That's it. Now you'll have a new option "Change Sound" in Desktop context menu.

7. You can use the same steps 3-5 to add other options. Simply give the desired option label in Step 3 and set the required command in Step 5. Following are the required codes which you'll need to provide as "command" in step 5:

Administrative Tools: control admintools

Change Cursor: control main.cpl,,1

Change Date / Time: control timedate.cpl

Change Regional Settings: control intl.cpl

Folder Options: control folders

Fonts: control fonts

Internet Options: control inetcpl.cpl

Network Connections:control ncpa.cpl

Power Options: control powercfg.cpl

Printers: control printers

Programs and Features: control appwiz.cpl

Registry Editor: regedit

Security Center: control wscui.cpl

Security Configuration: msconfig

System Properties: control sysdm.cpl

Task Manager: taskmgr

Task Scheduler: Control schedtasks

Turn Firewall On / Off: control firewall.cpl

User Accounts: Control userpasswords

User Accounts Classic: Control userpasswords2

8. That's it.

9. You can add any other desired control panel applet using the same way.

10. To remove any option, simply delete its key.

PS: If you want ready-made registry scripts to add the shortcuts automatically in Desktop context menu, then download following ZIP file, extract it and you'll get several .REG files for adding each shortcut. Just double-click on the desired .REG file, it'll ask for confirmation, accept it and you have done:

Download Registry Script

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This article was posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista.

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9 Comments

Nikolaj

i em the first agin to comment

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this is very cool
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but it can be becuse Denmark and where you live don't have the same time zone
Nikolaj

oh i just got a good idea what about making a ASKVG.com theme for windows xp and vista?
oscq

I just figured a way to do these in Windows XP
FaRReR

@oscq - how?
Nikolaj

Yes how
karma

hiii,, can I know how to add printer spooler restart option on context menu
Carlos

Can you tell me how I could add Regedit to the Context menu, please?
Keshava

Its amazing...
Spaceyavin

Err. How could I put them into a list instead of taking up all my precious space...