For those who do not know what the context menu is, it is the list of options that you get when you right-click a program, file or folder. This is set by Windows, and generally contains a standard list of options that can vary somewhat by file type. In other words, software is different from folders, and all stray from what you will find for images, videos, music, and more.
A program called Easy Context Menu is aiming to simplify everything. The little utility wishes to solve a lot of problems and fill some gaps present in today’s computing environment. Let’s get started and see how it fares with these lofty goals.
Download and Install
Download the app from the Sordum website and install the file – these days this can be a minefield of drive-by add-ons like toolbars and search assistants. However, a quick inspection reveals none of these pitfalls lay in your path. Plus, the file is a manageable size, though you will need to unzip it, once downloaded.
I’ll note that you will need to bypass the Windows protection to get this up and running, and I also had some issue at first with Clover, which I use to manage Explorer (it adds tabs). I initially disabled Clover, but discovered later that this really wasn’t necessary. Everything will be good when you are done.
Setup
When you launch the app you will be faced with a plethora of options – it’s almost an overload, but don’t panic. You can do this. Take a deep breath.
There are a lot of options here, and most are off by default. We can’t give you advice on what to enable, but let’s offer a few hints about the stuff you are seeing here.
This screen is broken down into sections, categorized by all of the different things that are capable of being right-clicked. This includes: devices, desktop, My Computer, folders and more. By default, only command prompt is enabled and only in a couple of the categories. You will need to pick and choose what else you want included. “Show and Hide Hidden Files and Folders,” for instance, is handy for many experienced users. “Disk Cleanup” in a drives context menu is similarly handy to have easy access to.
Once you have made your choices, head up to the top left of the window and click the mouse icon with the green plus on it to save all of your changes.
The Menu
There isn’t a lot to point out here. While the top of the screen contains a menu with the usual suspects – File, Edit, Options, Tools and Help – you will not find much contained there. Options provides some language choices and Tools allows for easily unchecking all boxes in case you decide to start over.
Conclusion
While this is likely not for the average user, but for the techie folks, many of whom would be reading this, Easy Context Menu will add numerous tweaks that can come in handy during daily usage. For many of you, this will be a handy little feature to get things set just right on your system.
Alan is an avid fan of all things technology, including Microsoft, Android, Google, and more. When not writing about or using gadgets and software, he can be found on the trails hiking or mountain biking.
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