TIP: Shift-right-click

[Miles]

* Gene E. Bloch wrote, On 13-Mar-12 02:29:

I'm now wondering if the difference might be something provided by the
computer's OEM.

In this case, I am the OEM. Perhaps those who report the shiftless
version got their computers from a company like HP or Dell. Does anyone
know about that?

Mine is from HP and have no knowledge as to whether or not it existed
prior to upgrading to pro.

 

[Joe Morris]

Command prompt requires a Shift-Right-Click on this Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

None of the Win7 flavors I've built (Pro, Ultimate, Enterprise, 32- and
64-bit) offer the command prompt in the context menu unless the shift key is
down when the right-click event is recognized. All the systems were built
from Win7 ISO files downloaded from either MSDN or the MS Licensing Center
(no OEM).

I have to suspect that somewhere along the line someone installed the
"Command Prompt Here" PowerToy from Windows XP (or someone's hack of that
package) on the OP's machine. That might explain the doubled entry.

On my systems here's what holding down the SHIFT key adds to the context
menu:

Open in new process
Open command window here
Copy as path

If you want to see the "Open command window here" entry in the context menu
without having to remember to hold down the SHIFT key, it's a simple
Registry change. Open REGEDIT and navigate to

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmd

At this key you'll find a REG_SZ data item named "Extended" with no text.
Delete this data item (or better, rename it to something like "ZZExtended"
so you can easily undo the change).

If you want to make the same change the the context menu for disk drive
icons in "Computer", use the same key as above but replace "Directory" with
"Drive". There are several other places in the Registry where the magic
token "Extended" is used; locating them is left as an exercise for the
student.

Joe Morris

 

[SC Tom]

None of the Win7 flavors I've built (Pro, Ultimate, Enterprise, 32- and 64-bit) offer the command prompt in the
context menu unless the shift key is down when the right-click event is recognized. All the systems were built from
Win7 ISO files downloaded from either MSDN or the MS Licensing Center (no OEM).

I have to suspect that somewhere along the line someone installed the "Command Prompt Here" PowerToy from Windows XP
(or someone's hack of that package) on the OP's machine. That might explain the doubled entry.

On my systems here's what holding down the SHIFT key adds to the context menu:

Open in new process
Open command window here
Copy as path

If you want to see the "Open command window here" entry in the context menu without having to remember to hold down
the SHIFT key, it's a simple Registry change. Open REGEDIT and navigate to

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\Directory\shell\cmd

At this key you'll find a REG_SZ data item named "Extended" with no text. Delete this data item (or better, rename it
to something like "ZZExtended" so you can easily undo the change).

If you want to make the same change the the context menu for disk drive icons in "Computer", use the same key as above
but replace "Directory" with "Drive". There are several other places in the Registry where the magic token "Extended"
is used; locating them is left as an exercise for the student.

Joe Morris

I have the "Extended" key under both Directory and Drive, and I have Command with and without shift, which makes me
think I probably already had it under Vista before I upgraded to Win7 HP 32-bit. Since I already had the XP PowerToys,
it probably came from there; a number of them work not only in XP, but in Vista and Win7 (not all of them, but some do).