One of the most annoying context menus in Windows is the stupid Send To menu which lets you send the clicked file to various programs, or special folders. Personally I never use it. Some of you may find it extremely useful, but for me it just wastes time. And over the years it grew so big that it actually takes 2-3 seconds to load the whole list. This means that if I accidentally touch that entry while manipulating files, I have to sit there and wait for it. That annoys me to no end. So I decided to disable it. It is relatively easy – you just need to tweak a single registry entry.
Simply copy and paste the following text into your favorite text editor and save it with a .reg extension. Then double click on it. After you do, Send To should be gone from the context menu.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Se nd To]
@=""
Make sure that the “Send To” is on one line. If you ever decide that you need that menu back, here is a file to re-enable it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Se nd To]
@="{7BA4C740-9E81-11CF-99D3-00AA004AE837}"
I figured I’d better post that second one, because it is anything but intuitive. Just a long registry D-Word value that might as well be completely arbitrary. I simply obtained it by exporting that reg key on my WinXP home machine before removing it. I tested it and it does restore the menu properly, at least on my system.
For safety I recommend that you export your own key before you remove the menu – although I don’t see why my d-word value wouldn’t work on most systems.
[tags]send to, send to context menu, context menu, windows, xp, tips[/tags]
I use that occasionally, not something I’d class as “extremely useful” but it has been used.. only for transferring stuff to a USB stick without going through My Computer though
Then again it hasn’t gotten so cumbersome on my system as to be a nuisance – if it was entrapping me for x number of seconds as you described then I’d be thanking you by now
I sometimes use it, but like Matt says, I don’t have enough to make it a nuisance :). Useful tip, though.
I could swear that I don’t remember even thinking about using it in the last 3-4 years. I definitely won’t miss it. :)
Wow thanks man, i have had enough headache about that stupid send to context menu. in slower PC, accidentally point to it means “PC hang” for at least 5 seconds. Even on modern machine, a 1-2 seconds delay will take place. Really stupid feature.
Thanks a lot!! This little reg key worked great! I hated that send to crap. It always made me wait to let me go down to Properties!
3 years later and it still works like a charme :)
Thanks for posting this!
My only problem with this is that in Chrome 6.0 it looks like there is a typo, I’m seeing Se Nd To rather than Send To in the registry texts.
Very useful, thank you.
The “reg” files are the easiest way to quickly tweak some features of windows. It worked very well on my XP. I just have to point out that in the string you have provided “Se nd To]” must be changed to “Send To]”. I did it right away without trying it unchanged.
@ iins:
Hello iins,
I Believe the space in the word ‘Se nd‘ is there to underline the letter ‘n‘ ; just like other letters in the context menu.
btw. I use the send to menu often and find it very usefull to copy files fast to external hd’s.
If the contextmenu is slow, I think thats mostly caused by 3rd party software.
cheers,
CoRnHoLiO74