Caveats

One issue with writing software no one else has done is that Windows does not always cooperate fully. Nobody has done it before so nobody has noticed. There are three Windows issues that come into play involving the management of Context Menus. The first is a problem that is hard to detect but easy to work around. The other two are operating limitations.

Caveat #1 !! CAUTION !!

!!DEACTIVATING SOME MENU COMMANDS CAN HAVE SEEMINGLY UNRELATED EFFECTS!!

 The Problem:

Microsoft implements many things as files or folders including desktop icons and start menu elements. The following issues can occur:

1) If you Deactivate "open" from the Folder menu:

2) If you Deactivate "New" from Directory/Background:

Caveat #2

When displaying a context menu for a group of files, Explorer modifies the menu based on the specific file the mouse happens to be on when the right mouse button is clicked for the menu. If you have selected 10 different types of files you will see different context menus based on which of the 10 files the mouse happens to be on when you click for the menu.

Caveat #3

Context Menu Manager can deactivate commands that have been added to context menus. It cannot deactivate basic commands such as Rename, Delete, Properties and several others that pop up every so often. These are what Microsoft calls “canonical verbs”. They are built in and there is simply no control over them.

Caveat #4

 Activate and Deactivate cannot show you the specific menu strings on the context menus.

The Problem:

Context Menu Manager displays a number of strings for each context menu but in only a few cases does it actually show the menu contents. You must deactivate a command and see what strings no longer appear to know which menu elements you have deactivated. (Or deactivate them all and see what reappears if you activate a command.)

 Explanation:

Context menu commands, with few exceptions, are not defined in the system registry. What is defined there is the software to be executed to create the menu. When you press the right mouse button the system checks the list of programs that have registered to produce context menus at that point and queries each one for the specific menu entries to be added. The program is free to put up what every menu string, strings or submenus it desires based on whatever criteria it desires. The upshot is that there is no guaranteed way of knowing what strings will appear on any given context menu at any given time. 

Solution:

Within Context Menu Manage, the activation or deactivation occurs as soon as the appropriate button is pressed (with the exception of Caveat #1). You can have Explorer open next to Context Menu Manager and quickly test to see what effect each change has. It is the only possible way of knowing the specific menu elements that will or will not appear based on a particular item being activated or deactivated.