Customize right click context menu in windows xp?

Question

How can I add a new item to right click menu for any file type and associate a action to this without using any third party tool. I hope it is possible using some registry hack..

Answer 1

Paste the following into a .reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\MakeSomethingUp]
@="This text will appear in the context menu"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\MakeSomethingUp\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\MyApp\\MyApp.exe\" \"%1\""

Import that file into the Registry.

Does that do what you need?

Answer 2

Try this http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/13596/how-do-i-add-an-item-to-the-right-click-menu.html

Answer 3

If you want it to happen for any file type, and you're just passing the file as an arg to the program in question, you can put a shortcut to the program in your SendTo menu (at %userprofile%\SendTo). I keep Notepad and Wordpad in there all the time.