How to Add UAC Shield Icon for a Right-Click Menu Item in Windows

Most users customize the right-click menu by adding additional verbs in the registry in order to launch programs or scripts. Windows 7 (and higher) lets you add the UAC Shield icon for static context menu items. If a verb you add to the right-click menu launches a program which runs elevated by default, then it’s a good idea to add the UAC shield icon so that users know that the task requires elevation.

For example, take the case of .REG files (aka Registration Entries). When you right-click on a .REG file, you’ll see the "Merge" command which launches Regedit.exe (always runs elevated when you’re logged in as administrator) and takes the file name as parameter. So let’s add an UAC icon to the Merge command for REG file type, as it runs Regedit.exe elevated.

By creating a registry value named HasLUAShield (REG_SZ) on the static verb, you can add the UAC shield icon to the corresponding item in the right-click menu. Use these steps:

Click Start, type Regedit.exe

Navigate to the following branch:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\regfile\shell\open

In the right-pane, create a String Value (REG_SZ) named HasLUAShield



Exit the Registry Editor.

Right-click on a .REG file, and you’ll see the UAC shield icon for the Merge command.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.