The option selecting box via right-click

Hell, dear and experienced friends,

I have several apps for dealing with documents (MS Word & Open Office).

Presently, when I select a file to open or edit, my computer is opening the desired file with the Open Office app -- even though the file was originally created with MS Word.

I also know that right-clicking on a file name will provide an action-selecting-choice box on the right of the file's name, thus providing a variety of ways to deal with the desired file one wishes to use. 

Please See the attachment.    Selection-Box(1).jpg   58.25KB   0 downloads

I have also noted that wishing to open different types of files, the right-click selection will present a different set of choices to deal with the requested file. So there must be a variety of these 'helping'
files -- somewhere on the hard disk of my computer.

My question is:  Is there some way to reorder the selections offered or even adding new options for alternate selections in the above-shown box?

It sounds quite uncomplicated, but as is often the case, Microsoft is not noted for making things simple.  Right?

I would certainly appreciate some guidance - actually some detailed and precise guidance - in getting my computer to be a better workhorse.
 

Looking forward to hearing from the forum experts.

Edited by Thailand_PAL, 28 August 2023 - 11:50 PM.

Hello, Peter:

I haven't used XP in many, many years.

But I think you are asking how to add items/programs to the right-click context menu?

If so, perhaps have a look HERE.

As for changing the order of items in the context menu, I presume that is set by the OS. But perhaps an internet search would turn up some ways to modify that.

Having said all that, using an XP system to go online in 2023 is very risky business. But I presume you already know that?

Hello, MoxieMomma !

Thank you for pointing in the right direction.  I shall delve into the suggested URL and should I  have further need of help, I will get back to this site.

P.S. As a kid in New England, I used to freak out when Mom or Dad brought some Moxie home from the market!  Great drink!

Hi:

Let us know if you resolve your issue.

Yes, I remember "Moxie". Moxie was named after that drink. BTW someone has fairly recnetly bought the name and I think "Moxie" brand beverages are back in production. Not sure if the ACTUAL "Moxie" flavor is....  

I have been occupied with my vehicle which started to show its age unfortunately.  This has kept me from looking into the URLs you have sent me. Next week should be better for getting back on track with my context boxes.  Thanks for your concern.

I am back from the urgent business that has kept me away from my original desire to better understand how context menus operate.  I am including a screenshot of two items:  1) my registry which is apparently the home of the context menus.  There are a HUGE number of these messages which make moving around in Windows a sort of breeze. and 2) a sample context menu that I would like to emulate.  

The sample menu is but a hand-copied sample that shows the goal of my project. The 2nd line (in red  text) has been included into the context menu that pops up when I directly select a URL on the Internet as opposed to the context menu that pops up when I select a link while using my email client which is almost the very same as the one shown except that there is no red item.  I find the red item really zooms into the link as opposed to the slow-as-molasses I get from the context menu that lives in my email client - somewhat like the cuckoo in a clock!

The URL suggestions that were sent to me sort of describe the overall purpose of content menus, but did not offer any directions or details for actually doing the manipulation of a context menu as one sees on the screen after a right click, but nothing about the underlying coding that is not visible but apparently is hinted at from what is seen in my registry.

In the hope that given a clear picture of what I am hoping to do with the supervision and direction of the forum members, I eagerly await further news from members who have already visited this post and others who feel that they can assist me. 

Further to my last post, I continued with my search for details of HOW to manipulate the context menus I wish to expand.  Thanks to the program "ShellMenuView", I was able to obtain and see that there are 577 of these context menus in my PC.  Among the many things I learned, was that BOTH the MS Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox have their own separate context menus.  The screenshot on the right presents the details found relating to the Firefox browser.

There is a total of 18 items that ShellMenuView located on my PC; 3 of those 18 are truncated.  ShellMenuView's  'Properties' window is fixed and does not expand, so I have added the missing information for the 3 truncated items:

Extension:       .htm, .html, .oga, .OGG, .OGV, .pdf, .shtml, .webm, .xht, .xhtml

Command:      "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" - osint - url "%1"

Registry Key:  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxURL\shell\open\Command

This is as far as I have gotten so far,but I'm not even close to my goal which is to:

1) copy one of the selection items found on the Firefox context menu, i.e. "Open Link in New Private Window"  and

2) insert that copied item into the Internet Explorer context menu as can be seen in the first screenshor attachment.

I am still the dark as to just how and where the text which is shown in the various context menus gets inscribed into the Registry.

Consequently, I continue to rely on the forum's more experienced participants so that I can achieve the goal that I have described above.