Removing Orphaned Items from the Shell Right Click Handler

Published 27 May 08 05:49 PM | nking 

In setting up my machine yesterday I needed to get access to an old file, which forced me to install a tool in trial mode to access it.  Having completed my install and respective uninstall of said application I found an annoying hangover.  My shell now had a orphaned shell handler.  Since my machine is so fresh I went on a war against this shell entry.

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First up there are lots of tool that can help here, but being a that a craplet got me here in the first place I wasn't keen to install another one to resolve my issue. I figured I go about things the traditional way.... regedit.

Windows stores these keys in several places;

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\OpenWithList
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Once I've found the offending entry.  Hit delete.  You could back it up, but I wanted no trace.

image

There you have it no more shell craplet.

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