How to Enable or Disable Desktop Context Menu

In Windows XP, right clicking on the Desktop displays a context menu. Did you know that you can do away with this feature? If you decide to disable the Desktop Context Menu, you will no longer see the menu when you right click on the Desktop, on items located in your Desktop, or on items found in Windows Explorer. You should note that this tweak will not affect Internet Explorer. Even if you disable the Desktop Context Menu, IE will not be affected.

This nifty registry tweak can be set for just one user, or for all users of the same machine. For this tweak to work, you have to be on a computer running Windows XP. You should also be sure to create a backup of your registry before making any edits.

Enable or Disable Desktop Context Menu for the Current User

  1. Click on Start. Go to Run. Enter regedit. Your registry editor will come up on the screen.
  2. Go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder found on the left side of the registry editor. Expand the folder by clicking on the little cross on the left.
  3. Locate the Software folder and expand.
  4. Now look for the Microsoft folder and expand.
  5. Go to Windows and expand the folder.
  6. Next, look for CurrentVersion and expand this folder. This should take you to Policies.
  7. Expand Policies and look for the Explorer folder.
  8. Now look at the right hand side of the registry editor. Do you see NoViewContextMenu? If you do, move on to step nine. If you don’t see NoViewContextMenu, follow the steps below to create it.
    • Right click on the right side of the registry editor.
    • Select New and then select DWORD.
    • Rename the value to NoViewContextMenu or right click on DWORD and select Rename.
  9. Double click on NoViewContextMenu. A new box will pop up.
  10. Enter 0 if you want to disable the Desktop Context Menu and enter 1 if you would like to enable the Desktop Context Menu.
  11. Exit the registry and reboot.

Enable or Disable Desktop Context Menu for the Local Machine

  1. Click on Start. Go to Run. Enter regedit. Your registry editor will come up on screen
  2. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder found on the left side of the registry editor. Expand it by clicking on the little cross on the left.
  3. Now go to SOFTWARE. Expand it to get to Microsoft.
  4. Expand Microsoft. This should take you to Windows.
  5. Expand Windows and go to CurrentVersion. Expand CurrentVersion.
  6. Look for policies. Expand this folder.
  7. This should take you to Explorer.
  8. Now look at the right pane of the registry editor. Can you see NoViewContextMenu? If you can, move on to step nine. If you can’t, follow the steps below to create NoViewContextMenu .
    • Right click on the right side of the registry editor.
    • Select New and then select DWORD.
    • Rename the value to NoViewContextMenu or right click on DWORD and select Rename.
  9. Double click on NoViewContextMenu. A new box will pop up.
  10. Enter 0 if you want to disable the Desktop Context Menu and enter 1 if you would like to enable the Desktop Context Menu.
  11. Exit the registry and reboot.