Adding Commands to Explorer Context Menu in Windows 7
by Vinny La Bash, vlabash@comcast.net 
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. 
A lot of things are possible when you bring up the Explorer context menu in Windows 7, but neither the Copy To folder nor Move To folder commands are one of them. Why did Microsoft leave these two useful commands off the menu? Only the programmers in Redmond know the answer. 
You can get around this annoyance by dragging and dropping to a different folder or disk drive, but that requires you to have at least two different windows open simultaneously. Copying the file or files from one window to another is also an option. Cut and paste is available, but either of those two actions necessitates leaving the current window and navigating around your system. Anyone with a basic knowledge of how files and folders work can do this, but it is much more trouble than necessary. You could wear out your mouse with all the clicking needed.
Some people have difficulty working with a mouse, and others prefer working with a keyboard. Whatever operational category you occupy, a context menu is much easier to operate in than all this clicking, dragging, and dropping. 
We can add the Copy To folder and Move To folder commands to the context menu with some relatively easy edits to the Registry. Registry edits often appear to be one of the great mysteries of the computer environment that can totally baffle or flat out terrify those who are unfamiliar with its inner workings. For that reason editing the Registry is officially and traditionally considered a task saved for experienced users only. These fears are largely exaggerated.  
With a little direction and a few proactive measures, most dangers can easily be avoided. The best proactive measure before taking on the following exercise is to back up the Registry in case you make some kind of irreversible mistake. 
With that out of the way let’s get started: 
Open the registry editor by left clicking on the Windows orb located at the bottom left hand side of your display. 
Type regedit in the text box and press Enter.
Respond to any dialog boxes that appear.
Navigate to the following registry folder.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\
ContextMenuHandlers
Right-click on the ContextMenuHandlers folder.
Select New/Key.
The New Key appears and you will be asked to name it. Give it the name Copy To and then double-click the (Default) value of the new key’s right-hand pane. The system will add the “folder” part of the command. You don’t need to specify it. 
Enter the following series of letters, numbers, and dashes EXACTLY as shown below. The series is case sensitive. Don’t forget to include the brackets.
{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
When you’re done and completely certain you have entered the information exactly as shown in the bolded line above, press Enter, and the Copy To folder command will now be part of the context menu. 
Now let’s add the Move To folder command to the context menu. Right-click the ContextMenuHandler folder again. 
The New Key again appears. Name it Move To and then double-click the (Default) value of the new key’s right-hand pane. The system will add the “folder” part of the command. You don’t need to specify it. 
Enter the following series of letters, numbers, and dashes EXACTLY as shown below. This series is also case sensitive. Don’t forget to include the brackets. {C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13} Note: This series is only one character different from the first series. 
When you’re done and completely certain you have entered the information exactly as shown in the bolded line above, press Enter, and the Move To folder command will now be part of the context menu. 
Finish up by closing the Registry Editor.
From now on, whenever you right-click on a file from within Explorer, the Copy To folder and Move To folder commands will be ready and waiting. Your new commands also work with multiple files. 
You can add a specific folder destination to the context menu without editing the registry. 
Open the Computer icon from the Desktop. 
Open the C: drive or wherever Windows 7 is installed.
Navigate to C:\Users\Userneame \AppData \Roaming\ Microsoft\ Windows\SendTo
Note: This folder contains shortcuts to all the destinations displayed from the SendTo command on Explorer’s context menu.
Right-click on an open space in this window.
Click New and then Shortcut. 
The Create Shortcut dialog box appears. It will prompt you to enter a destination in the text box. 
Enter the path to the desired destination or use the Browse button to find a folder buried somewhere in your system. 
Click Next, and give the shortcut a name. 
Click Finish to activate the new destination on the context menu. 
While holding the left shift button down, close the SendTo window.
The new target is now available in your SendTo menu. :
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2010. This article is from the August 2010 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/  Web: http://www.spcug.org/