Feature: Add the ability to customize the right click context menu shell items

[ChristopherHaws]

What feature or improvement do you think would benefit Files?

I would love the ability to customize the right click context menu to fit my personal needs a bit better. Even if it was just having the ability to "pin" some of the items from the "Show more items" menu into the main context menu, that would be a huge improvement.

Requirements

Option 1: Remember most used context menu items

• Include the most used context menu items and show the top X items in the primary right click context menu

Option 2: Allow pinning context menu items

• Allow users to "pin" selected items from the "Show more items" section to the main context menu.
• Save user's pinned items configuration across sessions.

Option 3: Customizable context menu

• Implement a customizable right-click context menu in "Files."
• Provide a UI interface within the application settings for users to manage their pinned items.

Files Version

2.5.21.0

Windows Version

10.0.22621.2361

Comments

Here is a picture of my current context menu in Files. I use the "Open in Terminal" and "Open in Code Insiders" more than any other buttons in this menu:

Here is the same context menu but in Explorer where it does show the two items I use most:

[Josh65-2201]

Thanks for the feedback, I've added this to the project board.

[superluig164]

I accidentally made a duplicate post, but here are my thoughts on some extra ideas for this feature I'd like to see considered:

When opening the "show more options" menu, it shows any shell extensions you have. My proposal is that you could right click on any of those items in the menu and "pin" them, such that, as soon as they are enumerated, they show up in the top level of the menu, similarly to what the option that shows all of them in the top level menu does, but without the clutter. This way, I could pin, for example, "Open with HxD," "7-zip," and "What's using this file?" and those would show up below the "Show more options..." item in the top level menu.

Further, you could choose to pin, or pin for this file type, so for example I could pin an item only for .jpg files or only for .txt files.

As I write this, this could be extended to the "Open With..." menu as well, so you could have a specific program pinned there for certain file types or all files, and quickly open files with that program from the top-level menu.

My, writing this has really got my juices flowing. The right click menu on a submenu item could show "Pin" (pin for every file), "Pin for this file type" (pin for any file with this type), "Pin in this folder" (pin for all files in this folder regardless of type), "Pin for this file" (pin on this exact file, and follow it if moved or copied with Files).

There's a mockup on my duplicate thread #14339 that I threw together illustrating what I mean. Hopefully it comes across well. Thanks for your time.

[protoman]

I also would like to be possible to move the actions that are just icons in the top, like cut/copy/paste, to regular icon+text entries. The usability of those small icons is not great. Needing precision in mouse movement to such common tasks, is not a great usability, IMHO.

[diogo-rossi]

Implement a customizable right-click context menu in "Files."

This would be great.

The native explorer in windows 10 allows to do that modifying the registry.

For example, it is possible to me set custom itens in the context menu by "folder" or by "file", even setting its icon, for several programs, in the native explorer:

Folder

File

It would be great to have something like this

[yaira2]

@Diogo-Rossi Modifying the values for File Explore will also apply to Files.

[diogo-rossi]

@Diogo-Rossi Modifying the values for File Explore will also apply to Files.

@yaira2 sorry, but, could you clarify?

I have those values modified in file explorer, but they are not applied to Files.

I've modified the values in the following registry keys:

• Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\Background\shell
• Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\shell\

[AndrewLaganaro]

I support this!!

[dimateos]

I would also need a customizable menu!

I use a custom context menu using https://github.com/moudey/Shell to:

• remove entries (some programs spam shell extensions)
• submenus grouping
• sorting entries
• some custom commands...

This is how clean it looks:

An alternative would be enabling the default windows context menu as suggested in https://github.com/files-community/Files/issues/7991 (where also the last comment mentions Shell). But seems like not going to happen as also mentioned in https://github.com/files-community/Files/issues/11112 and the FAQ.

[yaira2]

Support for third party context menus could be added provided the developer is interested in working with us to make it happen.