When you right-click a .inf, the Install command may be missing from the context menu. This happens due to a missing registry key related to .inf file type.
Note: Despite this problem, you can still run .inf files using the following command-line: (REF: InstallHinfSection Function)
rundll32.exe setupapi.dll,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 filename.inf
The missing Install option can be restored by running the .reg fix below.
1. Download inffix_xp.zip and save to Desktop
2. Unzip the archive and extract the file inffix_xp.reg
3. Right-click inffix_xp.reg and choose Merge.
4. Click Yes when asked for confirmation.
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@David: For troubleshooting shell extensions, one could also try ‘”Method 2″ at http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm
This doesn’t always fix the problem. My system had the registry entries just as described.
BUT, I found that some programs install their own context menu items, these can be found in:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
On removing one of these, magically all my options re-appeared.
I used trial and error deleting one-by-one, after first taking a copy of the registry key (export) so i could get back if I needed to.