How to Add Your Name in Desktop Context Menu in Windows XP?

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NOTE: This tutorial has been featured by Microsoft. AskVG.com was the first website posting this unique trick.

As you all know about my "How to enable “VIEW” Menu on Desktop in Windows XP" tutorial which teaches you how to enable View menu in Windows XP Desktop context menu just like Windows Vista:

Many people have asked me how did I add my name on top in Desktop context menu as shown in above screenshot? So today I decided to write a small tutorial about it.

So here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to add any desired string in Desktop context menu:

1. Open “%windir%\System32\Shell32.dll” file in resource hacker and go to:

Menu -> 215 -> 1033

2. Now add following line:

MENUITEM "xyz", 33333, MFT_STRING, MFS_GRAYED | MFS_DEFAULT

Just after the:

215 MENUEX
LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US
{
POPUP "", 0, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{

3. Replace "xyz" with any string which you want to add, e.g.

MENUITEM "!*~.VISHAL.~*!", 33333, MFT_STRING, MFS_GRAYED | MFS_DEFAULT

4. Click on "Compile Script" button.

5. Save the file and restart your Windows to see the affect.

BONUS TIP: You can remove "MFS_GRAYED" or "MFS_DEFAULT" or both to have some different look. "MFS_GRAYED" is used to disable the text, if you'll remove it, your name will look like an enabled item. "MFS_DEFAULT" is used to show the text in Bold, if you'll remove it, your name will be shown as normal text instead of Bold.

NOTE: If you are facing problems while saving a file after editing in resource hacker, then make sure you have disabled WFP (Windows File Protection) service using WFP Patcher.

Also if you are getting error "Can't create file...", that means you have edited and saved the same file in past and there is a backup file which needs to be deleted before saving this file again. Go to the folder containing this file and you'll see a similar file having "_original" in its name. Delete it and try to save the file in resource hacker.

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This article was posted by VG in following section: Resource Hacker, Windows XP.

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MNK

Thanks a lot for your very quick reply.

I compiled and saved the new script successfully. But didn't find any change in the desktop context menu!

BTW what 33333(Identifier) stands for? Isn't it a folder icon identifier in shell32.dll?

Regards.
Riza

MNK, maybe you forgot to restart computer. And don't used Save as...
samar

i apply these things too much time but i cant recive my name
Manoj

THanks Yaar U r superb at knowledge......
Imbeshat Ahmad Khan

HI vg. I have a problem regarding this. When i Try to paste the following code:-
215 MENUEX
LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US
{
POPUP "", 0, MFT_STRING, MFS_ENABLED, 0
{

an error message occured in res.hacker the messsage is:-"menuitem or popup expected" what to do now? plz help...
Subrata

I did try your tips to change “Start” word to something else. There are few problems. I am using winXP SP2. In Step2, after editing the expolrer.exe through ResHaker as i compile the script it makes another copy of explorer.exe and name it explorer_original.exe. I can not stop it, even though i have stopped the windows file protection by wfps10. finally i have deleted it in safe mode but the problem is when i try to start a new task through task manager it says it is not a valid win32 app. Any solution?
VG

^^ The _original file is created by default as a backup. There is no need to worry about that file. You must have made some mistake while editing the file thats why its giving invalid win32 app error.

Try to save the file somewhere else after editing and then use Replace to replace the file.
KonstantinMiller

I think I will try to recommend this post to my friends and family, cuz it's really helpful.
TMong

Hey VG,

Love the site and tutorials, about this name in the menu though,.. its just a visual thing, is it possible to assign it a command, make it open my userprofile by clicking it? maybe adding this command

"explorer.exe %userprofile%"

Thanks for the tutorials =]
VG

^^ No. Thats not possible.