ctxmenu — Context Menu Manager for Windows 10/11

A single-file GUI utility written in Rust + egui for managing the Windows Explorer right-click context menu and the "Open with" list. Bilingual UI (English / 中文, toggle in the top bar; the choice is saved to ctxmenu.ini next to the exe).

Features

• Scan context menu entries in both HKLM and HKCU across 6 locations (all files, files & folders, folders, background/desktop, generic folders, drives), covering both kinds of entries:
  • shell\<verb> classic menu commands
  • shellex\ContextMenuHandlers third-party COM extensions (archivers, cloud drives, antivirus, ...)
• Enable / disable (reversible, nothing is deleted):
  • menu commands: sets/removes the LegacyDisable value
  • shell extensions: adds/removes the CLSID in the Shell Extensions\Blocked list
• Delete with automatic .reg backup exported to ctxmenu_backups\deleted\ first — double-click the backup file to restore
• Add custom menu items (written to HKCU, current user only) with optional icon and "show only while Shift is held"; key names are prefixed with ctxmenu. for easy identification
• Full backup: export every scanned registry location as .reg files in one click
• "Open with" list manager (separate tab): scan any number of extensions at once (space/comma separated, with a "common text types" preset) across all five registration channels —
  • HKCU\...\Explorer\FileExts\<ext>\OpenWithList (recent apps MRU; removal also fixes up MRUList)
  • FileExts\<ext>\OpenWithProgids and Software\Classes\<ext>\OpenWithProgids (HKLM/HKCU)
  • Software\Classes\<ext>\OpenWithList, SystemFileAssociations\<ext> and perceived types (e.g. text)
  • Applications\<exe>\SupportedTypes self-registration
  • RegisteredApplications → Capabilities\FileAssociations (how browsers and AI assistants register dozens of extensions at once)
• Block an app from "Open with" everywhere: VS Code–style apps register one ProgID per extension (Foo.txt, Foo.md, ...); blocking marks the whole ProgID family (plus the Applications key) with NoOpenWith so the app disappears from "Open with" for every file type — fully reversible, nothing is deleted
• Group-by-app view: one row per application with a single Block/Unblock button; sortable columns
• Restart Explorer button to apply changes immediately

Download

Grab ctxmenu-*-windows-x64.exe from the Releases page and run it from any writable folder. No installation, no runtime dependencies (Windows 10/11). The app creates ctxmenu.ini (language setting) and ctxmenu_backups\ (registry backups) next to the exe.

The exe embeds a requireAdministrator manifest, so every launch shows a UAC prompt — this is required to modify system-wide (HKLM) entries.

Build from source

cargo build --release              # output: target\release\ctxmenu.exe (~3 MB)
cargo test --no-default-features   # tests must disable the admin manifest, or the test process cannot start

To publish a release: push a v* tag (e.g. git tag v0.1.0 && git push origin v0.1.0) and GitHub Actions will build the exe and attach it to a GitHub Release (see .github/workflows/release.yml).

Notes

• Disabling a shell extension works per CLSID: if the same extension appears in several locations (files, folders, ...) it is toggled everywhere at once
• Some display names are MUI indirect strings (e.g. @shell32.dll,-8506) and are shown as-is
• Changes apply to newly opened Explorer windows; use the "Restart Explorer" button for stubborn cases

License

MIT