Windows Context Menu Creator

A powerful, GUI-based tool for managing Windows Explorer right-click context menu entries directly from your browser. Add, edit, and remove shell entries across multiple registry scopes — no manual regedit needed.

---

✨ Features

• Desktop app — Native window via pywebview (no browser needed), with custom frameless titlebar
• Web-based GUI — Modern, dark-themed interface served at localhost:8787
• Multi-language — English and Arabic with full RTL support
• Dark / Light themes — Toggle between themes, persisted in localStorage
• Multi-scope registration — Target All Files (*), Directories, Directory Background, or specific file extensions
• Extension picker — Visual category-based picker with 80+ common file extensions
• Windows 11 support — One-click toggle to force the classic context menu (bypasses "Show more options")
• Live log sidebar — Real-time log feed with 3-second polling, no manual refresh needed
• Timestamped backups — Clear logs safely; browse, restore, or delete past backups anytime
• CLI mode — Full interactive terminal interface for scripting and automation
• Dry-run mode — Preview all registry changes without writing anything
• Auto icon detection — Automatically extracts icon path from selected executables
• Search & filter — Instantly find entries by name, command, or scope

---

📸 Screenshots

🖥️ Main Dashboard — Browse entries with scope badges, search & filter

➕ Add New Entry — Pick executable, set label, choose target scopes

✏️ Edit Entry — Modify path, display name, icon & scopes

📂 Extension Picker — 80+ extensions across 8 categories + custom input

📋 Live Log Viewer — Real-time feed with backup management

---

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
OS	Windows 10 or 11
Python	3.10+
Privileges	Must run as Administrator (registry writes require elevation)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/crrrowz/Windows-Context-Menu-Creator.git
cd Windows-Context-Menu-Creator

No external dependencies — the project uses only Python's standard library.

Usage

Interactive CLI

python main.py

Launches a live interactive terminal with a menu to add, remove, edit, list entries, run diagnostics, and more — all from the command line.

Web GUI

python main.py --gui

Opens the app as a native desktop window (pywebview). No browser required.

Web GUI (browser fallback)

python main.py --browser

Opens your default browser to http://localhost:8787 with the full visual interface.

Dry Run

python main.py --dry-run

Logs every registry operation without actually writing. Useful for previewing changes safely.

---

🏗️ Architecture

Windows-Context-Menu-Creator/
├── main.py                   # CLI entry point + --gui / --browser launcher
├── build.spec                # PyInstaller build configuration
├── requirements.txt          # Runtime dependencies (pywebview)
├── app/                      # Core Python package
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── gui.py                # Desktop launcher (pywebview + single-instance)
│   ├── server.py             # HTTP API server (REST + static file serving)
│   ├── registry_manager.py   # All Windows Registry (winreg) operations
│   ├── config.py             # Data models: MenuEntry, TargetScope
│   ├── safety.py             # Admin check, exe/icon path validation
│   ├── logger_setup.py       # Centralized logging configuration
│   └── examples.py           # Pre-built entry templates
├── static/
│   ├── index.html            # Main HTML shell (custom frameless titlebar)
│   ├── loading.html          # Instant loading splash page
│   ├── icon.ico              # Application icon
│   ├── css/
│   │   └── styles.css        # Full design system (dark/light, LTR/RTL)
│   ├── js/
│   │   ├── app.js            # Init, status, entries, filtering, rendering
│   │   ├── i18n.js           # Language & theme engine, SVG icon library
│   │   ├── extensions.js     # Extension picker (categories, chips, custom)
│   │   ├── modal.js          # Add/Edit/Delete modals + form handling
│   │   ├── menubar.js        # Titlebar menu dropdowns
│   │   └── logs.js           # Live log polling + backup browser
│   └── lang/
│       ├── en.json           # English translations (LTR)
│       └── ar.json           # Arabic translations (RTL)
└── docs/
    └── PYTHON_TO_WINDOWS_APP.md  # Conversion guide

Module Responsibilities

Module	Role
app/config.py	Pure data layer — MenuEntry dataclass and TargetScope enum. Zero side-effects.
app/safety.py	Pre-flight checks: admin privileges, exe path validation, icon path validation.
app/registry_manager.py	The only module that touches winreg. All read/write/delete operations.
app/server.py	HTTP API bridge between the web GUI and RegistryManager. Serves static files.
app/gui.py	Desktop shell — pywebview launcher, single-instance mutex, taskbar icon.
app/logger_setup.py	Configures file + console logging under %TEMP%\ContextMenuCreator\logs.
main.py	CLI entry point. --gui for desktop, --browser for browser, plain for CLI.

---

🔌 API Reference

All endpoints are served at http://localhost:8787.

Entries

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/entries	List all entries across all scopes
GET	/api/entry/<key>	Get details for a specific entry
POST	/api/entries	Add a new entry
PUT	/api/entries/<key>	Edit an existing entry
DELETE	/api/entries/<key>	Remove an entry from all scopes

System

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/status	Check admin status and Win11 menu state
POST	/api/win11-menu	Toggle Windows 11 classic context menu
POST	/api/pick-file	Open native file picker dialog

Logs

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/logs	Get last 10 log lines + backup count
POST	/api/logs/clear	Backup current log with timestamp, then clear
GET	/api/logs/backups	List all backup files (date, size, line count)
POST	/api/logs/restore	Restore a specific backup ({filename})
DELETE	/api/logs/backups/<name>	Permanently delete a backup file

---

🔧 Registry Scopes

Scope	Registry Path	Target
ALL_FILES	HKCR\*\shell	Right-click on any file
DIRECTORY	HKCR\Directory\shell	Right-click on a folder
DIR_BACKGROUND	HKCR\Directory\Background\shell	Right-click on empty space inside a folder
EXTENSION	HKCR\.ext\shell	Right-click on files with specific extensions

---

⚠️ Important Notes

• Always run as Administrator — Registry writes to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT require elevation.
• Changes are immediate — New context menu entries appear instantly in Explorer.
• Win11 toggle restarts Explorer — The classic menu toggle kills and restarts explorer.exe.
• Backup your registry — While the tool is safe, it's good practice to export HKCR before bulk operations.

---

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

---

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

---

📝 Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.