{"id":762,"date":"2008-11-03T11:39:27","date_gmt":"2008-11-03T06:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=762"},"modified":"2022-07-29T22:56:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T17:26:37","slug":"explore-desktop-context-menu-vista","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/explore-desktop-context-menu-vista\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Add “Explore” to the Desktop Context Menu in Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post shows how to add “Explore” to the desktop right-click menu. This tip is especially for users who hide the desktop icons for a plain desktop but want to quickly access the Desktop folder when required, without toggling the Show Desktop Icons option in the context menu.<\/p>\n

Add “Explore” to the Desktop Right-Click menu<\/h2>\n

Download desktop-explore.zip<\/a>, unzip and extract the contents to a folder. Double-click desktop-explore.reg<\/b> to run it. This adds the Explore<\/b> option to the Desktop right-click menu, which when clicked, opens Windows Explorer with focus on the Desktop folder.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Works in Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10.)<\/p>\n

You may also create shortcut with the following target, place it in the Quick Launch toolbar or Pin it to Start menu or Taskbar for easy access.<\/p>\n

explorer.exe shell:desktop<\/pre>\n
(See also: Shell Commands to access special folders<\/a>)<\/p>\n
The above command launches Explorer with the entire Desktop namespace view, thus showing the contents of the Public Desktop and User Desktop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This post shows how to add “Explore” to the desktop right-click menu. This tip is especially for users who hide the desktop icons for a plain desktop but want to quickly access the Desktop folder when required, without toggling the Show Desktop Icons option in the context menu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[114,441],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows","tag-context-menu","tag-registry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":341,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/add-select-all-option-to-the-context-menu-in-windows-vista\/","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":0},"title":"Add Select All option to the context menu in Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"June 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"To select all files in a folder or the Desktop, you use the CTRL + A keyboard shortcut. If you're an avid mouse user and need the select all functionality in the right-click menu in Windows, here is a registry tweak. This tweak adds the \"Select All\" option in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/selectall.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":992,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/desktop-background-file-location-right-click-menu-windows-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":1},"title":"How to Find Current Wallpaper (Desktop Background) File Location in Windows 7","author":"Ramesh","date":"February 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Desktop Background Slideshow is a neat little feature in Windows 7 which helps you shuffle your desktop background from a image file store folder, at predefined intervals. But, as Windows doesn't show the file name of the currently displayed wallpaper, it becomes a problem if you have thousands of images\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 7"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 7","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-7\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46006,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/shellnew-only-folder-listed\/","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":2},"title":"New Menu Shows Only “Folder” in the Desktop Context Menu","author":"Ramesh","date":"May 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"When you right-click on the desktop and click New, the New menu may only show the \"Folder\" entry. The other options, such as \"Shortcut,\" \"Text document,\" and \"Bitmap image,\" may be missing in the New menu. It's not typical for the Desktop folder to show only the \"Folder\" entry, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows 10"","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"new menu lists only folder","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/new-menu-lists-only-folder.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/save-and-restore-desktop-icon-layout\/","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":3},"title":"How to Save and Restore Desktop Icon Layout Automatically in Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"March 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When testing various display resolutions or after completing a remote desktop session, the desktop icons may go out of order. Another case is that when you accidentally use the Ctrl+ Scroll button (mouse) on your desktop, the Desktop icon size changes.\u00a0But reverting to the original icon size may not restore\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Utilities"","block_context":{"text":"Utilities","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/utilities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"desktop icon layout desktopok","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/desktop-ok-save-icon-layout.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/desktop-ok-save-icon-layout.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/desktop-ok-save-icon-layout.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4931,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/restart-explorer-gracefully-shortcut-command\/","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":4},"title":"How to Restart Explorer Cleanly Using Shortcut or Command-line","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When you make changes to the Windows registry using the Registry Editor, script or any other automation tool, you may have to logoff and login back for the changes to take effect. That's especially true if you're altering the UI element metrics or changing the shell namespace folder icons etc.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"restart explorer gracefully","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/restart-explorer-gracefully.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/copy-target-url-context-menu-option-for-internet-shortcut-url-files\/","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":5},"title":"How to Copy Address of a Internet Shortcut (.URL) via Right-click Menu","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Copy as Path command in the right-click menu is an extremely useful one to quickly copy the full path of a file or folder to clipboard. Similarly, for internet shortcut (.url) files, here is a script that lets you copy the web address (URL) of a internet shortcut, via\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Windows"","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"add \"copy target url\" context menu option for internet shortcuts","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/copytargeturl.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}