Windows XP Hacks

Forcing Windows Explorer Into True Usefulness

A grab bag of ways to make better use of Explorer.

There are plenty of small ways you can hack Explorer to make your computing life more productive—for example, by hacking the right-click shortcut menu. Try out these hacks and see.

Add Shortcut Menu Items to Specific File Types

When you right-click on a file in Explorer, you get a shortcut menu that includes a list of programs with which you can open the file. But the programs that you want to open those files might not always be on the shortcut menu. It’s easy to add new programs to that list. Let’s say that you want to add a shortcut menu item that allow s.gif files to be opened with the freeware graphics viewer IrfanView [Hack #86]. From Windows Explorer, choose Tools → Folder Options → File Types. In the Registered File Types list, select the file type for which you want to add a new shortcut menu item. In our example, we’ll choose a GIF file. After this hack, any time you click on a file of this type, you’ll get a new choice to open the file with.

Once you’ve chosen your file type, choose Advanced → New. You’ll see the New Action dialog box shown in Figure 3-16.

Figure 3-16. Adding a new program to the shortcut menu

In the Action box, type the text you want to appear on the shortcut menu—for example, Open with IrfanView. In the “Application used to perform action” box, enter the executable ...