Credit: Jason Fitzpatrick / How-to Geek

Microsoft has improved Windows 11 a lot over time, but one thing it still hasn’t paid attention to is the context menu. If you feel the same way, I highly recommend using Nilesoft Shell to customize your context menu.

What is Nilesoft Shell, and how do you install it?

While some users prefer the Windows 11 context menu, the majority of Windows 11 users don’t like it at all. The main issue with the Windows 11 context menu is that most useful options are hidden under “Show More Options,” meaning you have to make an extra click to perform many important actions. You can get rid of this shortcoming by using Nilesoft Shell, a free tool that allows you to customize the right-click context menu on your Windows PC according to your preferences.

There are a couple of ways to install the tool on your device. You can eitherdownload its installer file or use package managers like Winget, Scoop, or Chocolatey. I recommend downloading the installer file and installing the tool manually. I also tried installing it through the Windows Package Manager, but it failed and showed an exit code error 1603.

Anyway, once you have installed the tool on your device, you can quickly experience the changes it brings by right-clicking anywhere on an empty area of your desktop and checking the context menu. You will find a few new options in the context menu, such as Terminal, File Manager, and Go To.

Before you start exploring the tool further, you need to register it first. To do this, press and hold the Shift key and right-click on the taskbar. Hover over “Shell,” select “Manager,” and then click “Register.” Click the “OK” button to complete the process. Windows File Explorer will restart, and after that, you’re all set to explore and use the tool.

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The best part about Nilesoft Shell is that it lets you add or remove items from the context menu. To do this, press and hold the Shift key, right-click the taskbar, hover over “Shell,” and select “Directory.” Open the “Imports” folder, then open the “Modify.nss” file. You now need to use the **remove **command to delete an item from the context menu. For example, to remove the Paste option, type the following command in the Notepad window:

remove(find="paste")

Click the Ctrl+S keys to save the changes. Then go to the desktop, press and hold the Ctrl key, and right-click the mouse. You’ll see that the Paste option is no longer available in the context menu.

Similarly, you can add any item to the context menu as well, but for that, you need to use the **item **command instead of the **remove **command. For instance, if you want to add Google Chrome to the context menu, the command would look something like this:

item(title='Google Chrome', cmd='C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe', image='C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe')

Inside the CMD and image apostrophes, you need to type the path of the application you want to add. In the example above, it’s the path for Google Chrome. Save the changes. Then, go to the desktop, press and hold the Ctrl key, and right-click the mouse. You’ll see that the Chrome option is now available in the context menu.

The Windows 11 context menu, by default, adopts the same theme as the overall Windows system. However, Nilesoft Shell allows you to set a dedicated theme and color for your context menu, independent of the system-wide Windows theme.

To change the context menu theme, go to the “Directory” folder again, select the “Imports” folder, and then open the “Theme.nss” file. You now need to edit the name and dark entries if you want to switch between light and dark modes for the context menu. For instance, if you want the context menu to appear in dark mode, type **dark **in the name entry and **true **in the dark entry. Save the changes, and you will see the context menu in dark mode.

The color entry allows you to change the background color of the context menu. For example, if you want to give the context menu a pink background, get the color code for pink and paste it into the color entry. The opacity entry allows you to adjust the transparency of the context menu. You can choose a value between 0 and **100 **for opacity, with 0 being the least transparent and 100 being the most transparent.

The effect entry allows you to add different effects to the context menu. For a transparent effect, type** 1 **in the effect entry. Entering 2 applies a blur effect, while entering 3 gives the context menu an acrylic effect.

Once you’ve applied all the changes you want, press Ctrl+S to save them, then open the context menu to see the effects in action.

There are plenty of additions you can make to the theme file to make the context menu more appealing. You can check out the Nilesoft Shell docs page to get an idea of everything else you can add to the theme file. Here’s how the theme file looks on my system.

theme

{

name="dark"

dark=true

font.name= "Ink Free"

view = view.compact

background

{

color=#453937

opacity=70

effect=1

}

image.align=2

}

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This was all about Nilesoft Shell. The reason I prefer this tool over other context menu customizers is that it offers a wide range of customization options. From adding or removing items to changing the theme and adjusting the font type, you can do it all with Nilesoft Shell.