Over in my old blog, I recently had an entry about cleaning up the context menu in XP with PowerToys to fix a problem where Windows Exlplorer was even slower than usual.
Alas, Power Toys are not available for Vista, and even cleaning out the context menu will not speed it up. But, cleaning up the context menu does make it easier to use simply by narrowing down the choices by eliminating those you don’t use.
One habit I am trying to get into is adding a link to my Google query so folks can a) point out how I could have got better results and b) teach the less sophisticated Googlers how to improve their own results.
For the curious (and those who have not done much with Windows under the hood), there is a good summary of why your context menu may be annoying in an article at My Digital Life. The article includes a link to a ShellExView v1.37 by NirSoft. ShellExView is a cool tool if you are computer savvy, but not something I would recommend for your grandmother.
Of course, you can always do it the old fashioned way, i.e., regedit. Instructions on where to make the changes can be found at The WinVista Club.
On a related note, there is a good article at Computer World on how to manage your context menu in the “normal” way.
© Scott S. Nelson