How do you make context menu submenus in Windows?

Question

I've been writing utilities and mapping them to context menus via the Regedit on the Shell key of *, but I can't figure out how to make submenus like some of the more popular utilities do.

For example, if I have three scripts to move and rename files to three different folders, right now I have three different context menu entries. I'd prefer to have one called "move and rename..." that expands to those three.

Answer 1

You can specify group/menu name with subcommands and specify items, for example - to make context menu for EXE file

group name: "InstallShield debug" 
group subcommands:InstDbg1;InstDbg2;InstDbg3;InstDbg4;InstDbg5;InstDbg6;InstDbg7 
group item1:  name: "debug installer /d" ; key  InstDbg1 
group item2:  name: "debug installer /d /v..." ; key  InstDbg2 
etc

the reg file for this would be

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

;cascading context menu - use empty lines between registry items
;separator before: "CommandFlags"=dword:00000020
;SubCommands contains keys to be found in the registry - should match

KEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\InstallShield cascade menu]
"MUIVerb"="InstallShield debug"
"Icon"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\InstallShield\\2020\\System\\isdev.exe"
"SubCommands"="InstDbg1;InstDbg2;InstDbg3;InstDbg4;InstDbg5;InstDbg6;InstDbg7"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg1]
@=""
"MUIVerb"="debug installer /d"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg1\command]
@="\"%1\" /d"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg2]
@=""
"MUIVerb"="debug installer /d /v TEST_STATUS=Good"
"CommandFlags"=dword:00000020

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg2\command]
@="\"%1\" /d /v\"TEST_STATUS=Good\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg3]
@=""
"MUIVerb"="debug installer /d /v TEST_STATUS=Undetermined"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg3\command]
@="\"%1\" /d /v\"TEST_STATUS=Undetermined\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg4]
@=""
"MUIVerb"="debug installer /d /v TEST_STATUS=Unauthorized"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg4\command]
@="\"%1\" /d /v\"TEST_STATUS=Unauthorized\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg5]
@=""
"MUIVerb"="run installer /v TEST_STATUS=Good"
"CommandFlags"=dword:00000020

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg5\command]
@="\"%1\" /v\"TEST_STATUS=Good\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg6]
@=""
"MUIVerb"="run installer /v TEST_STATUS=Undetermined"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg6\command]
@="\"%1\" /v\"TEST_STATUS=Undetermined\""

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg7]
@=""
"MUIVerb"="run installer /v TEST_STATUS=Unauthorized"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\InstDbg7\command]
@="\"%1\" /v\"TEST_STATUS=Unauthorized\""

which results:

Answer 2

You can create a submenu to context menus via registry, WIN 7 as seen here

Backup your registry first is recommended!

This example puts a submenu with a single command into the rightclick context on any file (not folders or desktop).

The menu:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Custom Menu]
"MUIVerb"="Custom Tools"
"SubCommands"="Custom.copytoclip"

The commands:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\Custom.copytoclip]
@="copytoclip description here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell\Custom.copytoclip\command]
@="cmd /c clip < %1"

Please be careful editing your registry, other versions of windows may work differently.

Answer 3

You haven't specified what language you are using. Anyway, what you need to do is write a Shell Extension. There'a a guide, here.

As David has pointed out, it is not possible to do this in C# This blog post explains it.

Answer 4

You have to write a custom Context Menu Handler.