This is great! I'll add this to my Windows setup files.

A lot of your additions add things to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Where can I find documentation on how to do that? I'd like to write some of my own. I have about 50 years experience as a professional programmer, but it's rather hard to write code without adequate documentation of what's what. I tried a Google search, on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, but came up with nothing useful. A Google search on "add commands to right-click menu" was somewhat more helpful, but still did not give all the details of what the various keys and values are.

SpacemanSam said:

This is great! I'll add this to my Windows setup files.

A lot of your additions add things to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Where can I find documentation on how to do that? I'd like to write some of my own. I have about 50 years experience as a professional programmer, but it's rather hard to write code without adequate documentation of what's what. I tried a Google search, on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, but came up with nothing useful. A Google search on "add commands to right-click menu" was somewhat more helpful, but still did not give all the details of what the various keys and values are.

Hey mate,

I'm sure there must be a ton of reference out there somewhere, but I don't think I've seen a all-in-one type reference for this yet. Most of what I know on this is from years of trial and error along with a general understanding of the registry.

Real basically, you can add the entries for the context menu usually to the shell key for the file type or GUID of items you want usually in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (aka: HKCR).

For now, I'd say search for "context menu" in the tutorial index at the link below. You can download the .reg files for them, and edit them to compare to help get a feel for doing this.

Windows 10 Tutorial Index

In addition, here's a basic tutorial below for creating a cascading context menu that may help some more.

Context Menu - Create Cascading Menu of Multiple Layers - Windows 7 Help Forums

I'll be happy to help work with you on creating some until you get the hang of it if you like. Just create a new thread for one, and let me know the post link.

SpacemanSam said:

I've been adding some enhancements to your "Change owner" tweak. Among other things, I've added your "Take Ownership" as a flyout item. I've got most of it working but I still have a few unanswered questions:
1. What is the significance / function of the "01" in the "01Owner" key?
2. How do you produce a separator in a sub-menu? I tried adding the list of sub-keys to the "SubCommands" value as DanSitar said to do in his tutorial on cascading menus, but that caused it to fail completely. As my code currently stands, two of the menus (directories and drives) have separators but one (files) doesn't, and I haven't found anything in the code that appears to account for it.
3. How do you specify what order the entries in a flyout appear in?
4. Two of the 3 "Take Ownership" entries add values to "...\TakeOwnership\runas" instead of just "...\TakeOwnership". What is the purpose of runas?
5. What is the purpose of "...\ChangeOwner\shell\Administrators" > "CommandFlags"? CommandFlags appears nowhere else in this code.
6. What is "IsolatedCommand"?
7. Where can I read documentation on the syntax, etc. of the "AppliesTo" value? I want to add "Documents and Settings" (and perhaps a few others) to the list of prohibited directories, as this causes problems. Or perhaps changing ownership of ALL junctions should be prohibited?

I can send you my code as it now stands if you need to examine it, but I have more I plan on adding once I get these bugs ironed out (such as adding flyouts for some of your other tweaks regarding ownership and permissions, to keep the size of the main right-click menu from becoming too excessive). I will definitely post the code (with comments, of course!) when it's finished.

1) As Matthew already posted, "O1" in the key name is used for the order of the items in the context menu. The key name can be anything you want, but it will be listed in numeric order first and alphabetical order after any numbers. I just found it easier to use something like "O1" at the front of the key name to make it easy to arrange the order how I wanted.

2) You would add the "CommandFlags"=dword:00000020 value in the second item between the two items you want a separator line at. You can see an example of its usage in the Add_Change_Owner_to_context_menu.reg here.

3) Same as 1 with the key names per item.

4) The "runas" key allows the item to prompt for elevation (run as administrator) without having to include a prompt for elevation in the command. You have to be careful about using the "runas" key since Windows uses for some file types, and using it will replace whatever was previously using it. This is one reason why I don't use the "runas" key unless it's not already used by default.

5) Explained in 2 for the separator.

6) I currently can't find a technical reference for the "IsolatedCommand" value for a better explanation, but it's used here as part of the command.

7) I currently can't find a technical reference for the "AppliesTo" value for a better explanation, but it's basically a way to specify the context menu item to "NOT" appear for specified locations (ex: folders, drive letters. etc...). Think of it as an exclusion list.

For example, I used the "System.ItemPathDisplay" property with "AppliesTo" to specify folder and drive paths to "NOT" appear for in this Add_Change_Owner_to_context_menu.reg file.

I ended up eventually learning more about 6 & 7 by seeing examples of registry keys and values using it, and eventually putting 2 and 2 together about their purpose. A lot of trial and error. LOL

EDIT: Sure, you can go ahead and create a new separate thread if you wanted to post your code for us to look at.

Matthew Wai said:

I cannot find "TakeOwnership" in "Add_Change_Owner_to_context_menu.reg". What file are you referring to?

Hello Matthew,

He's referring to the tutorial below for the take ownership bit he added to his custom .reg file.

Add Take Ownership to Context Menu in Windows 10

@SpacemanSam,

Personally, it may be best to keep them as separate context menus considering "Take Ownership" uses the "runas" key for part of it, and doesn't work the same or at all if tried to merge within the same keys used for this "Change Owner" context menu.

SpacemanSam said:

So it seems. I was hoping to merge them, as they logically "belong" together, the only difference from the user's viewpoint being who the owner becomes.

Also the right-click menu is already rather large and this would help reduce the clutter.

What is the purpose of using "runas" ? Maybe if I understood this better I might be able to solve this! The documentation I've found so far has been too vague and confusing, and much of it seems to refer to a different context.

I agree. I have never really found any clear and concise reference material on this. Everything I've seen is pretty vague, and assumes you already fully know about the subject.

Think of a command under the "runas" key as being the same as using the "Run as administrator" context menu on an executable file.

If it's not under the "runas" key, you would have to programmatically prompt for elevation in the command code instead like in the other keys not under "runas" in the .reg file here.

I used "runas" for the "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*" key (generic all file types) for "Take Ownership" since I found it problematic to use the other way for this.