[Tip] How to Change Context Menu Position from Left to Right in Windows

I have received many emails from people regarding menu position issue in Windows Vista and later Windows versions. In previous Windows versions, context menus used to appear at right-side of the mouse cursor but in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10, menus appear at left side of the cursor.

It doesn’t happen for everyone but majority of people is facing this issue even I have faced it in my Windows.

So here I’m posting a small tutorial for how to change menus position in Windows Vista and later. Actually its not a bug or problem, you can set the menu position according to your requirements.

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So if you want to change or customize context menu position, just follow these simple steps:

1. Open Control Panel and double-click on “Tablet PC Settings“. If you can’t see the item in Control Panel, run following command in RUN dialog box and press Enter:

explorer shell:::{80F3F1D5-FECA-45F3-BC32-752C152E456E}

It’ll directly open Tablet PC Settings window.

2. It’ll open a new window containing following options:

Handedness
Change where menus appear on the screen by indicating which hand you write with.

  • Right-handed (Menus appear to the left of your hand.)
  • Left-handed (Menus appear to the right of your hand.)

Menu_Position_Vista_7.png

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As mentioned in the screenshot, if the “Right-handed” option is selected, the menus appear to the left and if the “Left-handed” option is selected, the menus appear to the right of your hand. So select the correct option.

3. That’s it. Apply the changes and your problem will be solved.

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

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  1. To force the Tablet PC Settings to open just run: %windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{80F3F1D5-FECA-45F3-BC32-752C152E456E}

    Hope it helps.

  2. Oh my..
    Thanks askvg and Israel!

    This helped me a lot with Windows 8.
    Microsoft hid the Tablet PC Settings panel in it’s latest release and stated it’s not there any more.
    But indeed it is! I successfully opened it up with the command you shared, and changed the handedness settings which otherwise would be impossible in this marvelous operating system…

    Thank you so much for your help!

  3. Thank-you!

    Just changed to Windows 8 and found all sub-menus were appearing to the left – now they correctly appear to the right as I expect them too thanks to your tip

    🙂

  4. Thank you so much! Got a new laptop with Windows 8 on it and the menus dropping to the left side were driving me batty. I’m glad to have these back where they belong. 🙂

  5. I’ve been trying to restore this for weeks. I found it once on Windows 8.1, but I had to reinstall Windows 8 to install Windows 8.1 Update 1 and I couldn’t find it. Thanks, VG!

  6. Vishal Gupta, thank you, thank you, Thank You! These left-side opening menus have plagued me ever since I had to replace my old Windows 7 laptop with a new one using Windows 8.1. With my disability, my hands just weren’t used to using left-sided menus and 50% of the time, I’d miss the path and as you know, the menu then disappears, forcing you to start all over. I wish I had searched for an answer to this LONG ago. You’ve cured my frustration over the menu issue! Many thanks again. 🙂

  7. “%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{80F3F1D5-FECA-45F3-BC32-752C152E456E}” Works Great!!, Does anyone know how I can go straight to “Calibrate” as a Created Shortcut? I need to eliminate the Tablet PC Settings window.

  8. Totally worked! Copied “explorer shell:::{80F3F1D5-FECA-45F3-BC32-752C152E456E}” and went to the search prompt/field in the Start Menu for Windows 8.1, pasted it, hit enter. It found one app and I clicked on that and the Tablet PC Settings window appeared! Went to “other” settings and switched left/right handed orientation and everything was right with the world!!

    Thank you, I was losing my damn mind over this insanely small detail!

  9. This is the dumbest thing. I have a laptop with a touchscreen (not sure the point, since it doesn’t fold into a tablet, also dumb). Being a laptop and NOT a tablet, I did not think to look here, amazing!

  10. I go back to Win 3 & on every one the drop down menus would be on the right. Just got Win 10 Pro & in normal MS fashion they are on the left. Decided to do a search and lo & behold your site was the first hit. It worked like a champ! Thank you VERY much for restoring some of the little sanity I still have. GGGG I’m 70.

    BTW the ‘Tablet PC settings’ was in the Control Panel so I didn’t have to do any cutting & pasting.

  11. Thank you very much for this useful info, it works even in Windows 10!

    I had the submenus open to the left, after I had installed a windows update, and when I checked the setting it said “open submenus to the right”, so I changed that to left, and then immediately changed it back to right, and now my submenus opens to< the right again!

  12. Edit: I’ve got the right and the left mixed up in my last reply, but I hope you understand… I have now set the submenus to open to the left, but they now opens to the right, as they should…

  13. So, basically this is MS, due to the existence of tablets, making people set on their PCs that they’re left-handed.

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