How to Add a Command Window to the Right-Click Menu

As I delve further and further into how the PC works and I start to get involved in more technical projects, I am finding myself increasingly using the command prompt window. These days, the command prompt window is kind of made redundant by the fact that everything can be done by clicking on a link or icon. Let’s face it, why type in C:\Program Files\Skype\Skype.exe in the command box when you can just go to the start menu and click on the link?

Saying that, there are a lot of people out there that use the command prompt box to run their own scripts and you also need the command prompt window to get into the Windows Registry. But once you start using the command prompt window more than a few times, it gets tiring going to the start menu, choosing “run” and then typing “cmd”. Wouldn’t it be better and faster to right-click on a hard-drive folder (or your desktop trash bin) and open a command prompt window from your right-click menu? I sure prefer it.

Before we go any further, I want to stress that the following process involves making some changes to your Windows registry. If you are unsure what you are doing, make a backup of your registry in case things go wrong!

1. Go to your start menu, choose “run” and then type in “regedit” and then press enter. Your Windows registry box will now come up on the screen.

2. In the left pane window, navigate toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folder/shell.

3. Make sure the shell folder is chosen, then in the right pane, right-click, choose new thenkey. Name it command prompt.

4. Select the new key in the left pane and in the right pane, click on the icon. This will open up a box where you type in open command prompt in the “value data” field. Press enter to save it.

5. In that same right-pane window, right-click, choose new then key. Type command in the box. Press enter.

6. Choose this key in the left pane and in the right pane window, click on the icon. In the value data field, type cmd.exe /k pushd %L. Press enter to save it.

7. Close Windows registry and refresh your Windows Explorer.

8. If you now right-click on a folder or on your desktop trash bin, you’ll now see an option which says Open Command Prompt. Choosing that will open a command prompt window.

Mark O’Neill is a freelance writer, proofreader, editor and blogger. Check out his blog atwww.betterthantherapy.net

3 More Tools to Customize the Right Click Menu (Windows)

Who doesn’t love a shortcut? Thanks to the guy who programmed in the right click menu, we get to take some of them while working or browsing on the computer. Here at MakeUseOf we have looked at some of the ways to add more power to the right click menu.

Earlier we have looked at ways to customize the right click menu on your own or use the free‘Mmm’ to do it for you.  We have also looked at ways to add & remove entries from right click context menu. But here I am back again looking at three more ways to customize my right click menu give it a booster shot.

Folder Guide

As the name says, navigating through the folders and directories of your hard-drive with the right click becomes easier with this freeware. Use Folder Guide to tweak your right click menu and set up your frequently used folders and access them. Also, you can set up some separators to categorize the Folder Guide entries.

Of course, you can set it up through manual additions in the send to folder too but ‘Folder Guide’ just does it a bit more neatly saving you some clicks.

Access the ‘Folder Guide’ menu by right clicking on file, folder background, Windows Explorer, Open/Save dialog boxes, Desktop, or Start Button. Add your favorite folders, sort them in your own order, arrange them with separators and you’ll have quick access at the click of a right button. With a small imprint of just 1.6 MB, Folder Guide is worth a try.

Moo0 RightClicker

Nope, cows don’t take shortcuts. Moo0 RightClicker is just a handy set of improvements for our right click menus. The 4.2 MB free right click menu editor has a free version and a more feature laden paid counterpart. The free version is a good help as it gives the right click menu some useful add-ons and also allows the user to manage the ones already there.

The program opens with a notice mentioning a bug in Win XP which causes CPU utilization to spike to 100% temporarily (though, I did not catch any…) under certain usage conditions. It gives the option to turn off some ‘Effects’ in Display Properties. The functions are simple to understand. The free version gives two interface options – Simple and Basic.

Here’s a feature list -

• Copy and move files and folders to bookmarked or standard system folders. Bookmarking often used folders is a nice touch.
• Intelligent copying – using the name, path, or contents of an actual file.
• Sort folder contents by numerous attributes.
• Create a duplicate window. (Access it from the File menu of a folder)
• Preview images.
• Arrange neatly with quick-collapsing menus.
• Delete items permanently bypassing the recycle bin.

Moo0 doesn’t remove any of your earlier customizations but lets you add some more. So it integrates the earlier shell entries you might have made. Un-installation is also safe. The only thing I wish is that could have given me a bit more choice against its default lime green color.

FileMenu Tools

The powerhouse for the last mention. FileMenu Tools goes further than the previous two mentioned. It takes the context menu out of the box and literally makes it a file manager. It allows you to either clean up the clutter or throw in a few more options for handling files and folders. Over and above, add your own choice of programs, folders and paths. Also, add your own icons and names through the properties dialog.

Do more with features like -

• Configure built in commands or add customized commands according to the file types you right click on.
• Configure the ‘Send to Menu’ within the FileMenu program.
• A very handy advanced renamer lets you batch rename all files in a folder.
• Synchronize two folders from within Windows Explorer.
• Split-join files and also compresses the parts.
• Find or replace a text for all the files that a selected folder contains.
• Delete only files of a specific type. For example, delete only the ‘.log’ files from the temporary folder.
• Mark locked files (files which are being used by other programs) for deletion with the next system boot.
• Securely shred your files and make them unrecoverable.
• Get a view of folder size through a pie chart.
• Send selected contents as email attachments.
• Add separators and demarcate your right click shortcuts.

These are just some of the utilities packaged inside FileMenu Tools. The greatest advantage beyond the ease of configuration is that the software bundles a lot of disparate utilities in an accessible collection. At an installed size of 6.4 MB and a freeware it’s click worthy.

The choice of decking up your right click menu depends on the kind of power you want to give it. But it’s a certainty that you will be spoilt for choice with the free software available.

Customize Your ‘Send To’ Right-Click Windows Menu

If you’re like me, you frequently to move the same types of files to the same places over and over again. While you could keep a shortcut pointing to that location on your Desktop, there’s an even easier (and more flexible) way to quickly move files to a favorite place. The secret lies in the “Send To” command found in your right-click contextual menu.

At this point you’re probably either thinking, “what command where?” or “that has a function?” Hopefully we’ll answer both of those in that order for you. First, right-click on any file or folder. Notice that the “contextual” menu, that is, the menu that drops down from your cursor, has several options on it. The one we’re interested in is “Send To.” Once you run your mouse over the ‘Send To’ command, it drops down with a list of locations.

Now when you first saw this tool, if you even noticed it at all, you probably thought it was pretty terrible. Most of the locations on the list, by default, are fairly useless. The only way I ever used ‘Send To’ in the past was to create shortcuts and put them on the Desktop. What you see above is my newly cleaned-up and customized ‘Send To’ menu.

One of the unadvertised features of ‘Send To’ is that you can directly change the items that show up in the list. This is done by going to a specific folder and changing its contents. That folder is found in “Documents and Settings/yourusername.” Note: replace “yourusername” with whatever your user account name is on your computer. Here’s what mine looks like.

Notice that the Send To folder is somewhat transparent, indicating it is a hidden folder. If your hidden folders are not visible, go into “Tools->Folder Options->View (Tab)->Show Hidden Folders.” Once you have done this you are ready to go into your Send To folder.

In the folder, you will see all of the items that show up in the drop down. Most of these are actually shortcuts to those places, though a few are drives, commands to zip, or special system shortcuts to places like the Desktop or ‘My Documents’. Because they’re shortcuts, any other shortcuts you place in this folder will also show up in your Send To drop down.

As you can see above, I cleaned out my folder so it only has a few items in it. Now I have the ability to create shortcuts to the Desktop, zip files, and send files to My Documents, My Pictures, and Screenshots. This last folder, ‘Screenshots’, I added by holding the Alt key while dragging Screenshots into the ‘Send To’ folder. This created a shortcut of the selected folder instead of moving it. If you don’t feel comfortable with that hotkey, simply right click the desired item, click “New->Shortcut” and drag your new shortcut into the ‘Send To’ folder.

After tinkering with my ‘Send To’ list, it’s much more useful. Let’s send some pictures that I used for this article into the Screenshots folder:

Voila! This is a really useful little tool for me because I often need to play with several different types of files and find the best place to do that is on the Desktop. When I’m done using those files I either delete them or toss them into their relevant folders for safe keeping. ‘Send To’ now allows me to send all my screenshots in a batch into the Screenshots folder. This is also handy if you have any folders that take specific actions when items are added to them.

I’m sure there are a number of neat uses for this tip, so please tell us what you come up with in the comments!

How to Download Embedded Flash Files using your Browser

Today, Flash is everywhere. Animations, music, games, advertisements or even streaming presentations. Speaking of games, here’s a list of site with the best flash games.

The use of Flash plug-ins in browsers is now almost obligatory. Yes, it’s easy to view and enjoy the rich media content delivered by interactive Flash embedded pages. But what if I want to download some of these files as keepsakes? The greatest benefit ““ I can watch them offline in my own jolly time. Convert them to a format of my choice. Or embed them again in a PowerPoint presentation. Or even transfer them to my mobile phone.

Flash animation files are embedded as SWF (Small Web Format) files in webpages. Rather than depending on any software or a third-party website, downloading Flash content is dead simple. The only tool required is a browser and a bit of patience to do the rummaging around.

Just one note: As we will be heading into the internet cache folders of the respective browsers, it pays to clear it of all old files before navigating to the desired page. It makes the Flash file search a lot easier.

So, here’s how to do it in three of our popular browsers.

Download SWF files using Firefox

1. Fire up Firefox and browse to the page which contains the embedded SWF Flash file that you are eyeing to download. Let the SWF file stream through once completely.
2. On any empty part of the page, right-click and select the Page Info context menu option. Or alternatively, go to Tools ““ Page Info.
   
3. Select the Media tab. The Media tab lists all image formats, icons, style sheets and flash files that were rendered by the webpage.
   
4. Look amongst the items to find the particular file with the SWF extension. The type column will show up with an Embed filetype. Highlight the file and click Save as to save the file on your hard drive.

Download SWF files using Internet Explorer

In IE8, we have to head to the Temporary Internet Files folder which stores all rendered files during a browsing session. (It can be directly accessed from here in Windows XP –C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files.)

1. Go to the IE Menu bar. Click on Tools ““ Internet Options.
2. On the General tab, click on Settings under Browsing History.
3. The Temporary Internet Files and Browsing History box opens up.
   
4. Click on View Files. You will get all the rendered webpage elements in this folder.
5. To rummage about effectively amidst the mass of files, choose View ““ Arrange by Type from the menu. Also go to Tools ““ Folder Options, and uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types option.
6. Seek out your SWF files, copy and then paste it to your preferred location.
   

Download SWF files using Opera

In Opera, downloaded SWF files can be accessed in two simple ways ““

• Type opera:cache in the address bar.
• Go to Tools ““ Advanced ““ Cache from the toolbar.

Either way, a huge list of downloaded page elements opens up with their URLs. Search for a file with the .swf extension. Alternatively, you could search (Ctrl+F ) and hunt it down, with swf as the search query.

Right-click on the particular file and choose either Saved Linked Content As or Save to Download Folder to save the SWF file on the hard disk.

After downloading the SWF file, one can use the Adobe Flash Player to view the Flash file or a supported media player like Media Player Classic. Or, an easier way would be to just open it in a browser by right-clicking it and selecting the browser of choice.

These are the ways we can use to single out the Flash files from a webpage. In my experience, I personally have been more comfortable with Firefox than the other two. I am still searching a way perform this in Chrome but it is proving impossible without third-party support. Numerous third-party tools can do the same job better by converting it to a format of your choice. But it always pays to know that you can fall back on a browser alone.

Aibek had the same idea about offline Flash files when he covered How To Download and Play Flash Games Offline in a previous post. That post extends the possibilities of the fun we can have with Flash files.

What about you? Do you let it play on the webpage or do you dig under and take a Flash file offline?