Windows 10: Enable or Disable Taskbar Context Menus in Windows 10

How to: Enable or Disable Taskbar Context Menus in Windows 10

How to Enable or Disable Taskbar Context Menus in Windows 10


When you perform one of the actions below, you will see a taskbar context menu.

• Right click or press and hold on the taskbar
• Press and hold Shift while right clicking on an icon on the taskbar
• Right click or press and hold on the Clock system icon on the taskbar

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable access to taskbar context menus for specific or all users in Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable access to taskbar context menus.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: Enable or Disable Taskbar Context Menus in Local Group Policy Editor
• Option Two: Enable or Disable Taskbar Context Menus using a REG file

EXAMPLE: Taskbar context menus













OPTION ONE [/i] Enable or Disable Taskbar Context Menus in Local Group Policy Editor

*note The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Two below.
1. Open the all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want this policy applied.

2. In the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor, click/tap on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and Start Menu and Taskbar. (see screenshot below)



3. In the right pane of Start Menu and Taskbar, double click/tap on the Remove access to the context menus for the taskbar policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4. Do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you would like to do.


5. To Enable Taskbar Context Menus
A) Select (dot) either Not Configured or Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

*note Not Configured is the default setting.

6. To Disable Taskbar Context Menus
A) Select (dot) Enabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)




7. When finished, you can close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] Enable or Disable Taskbar Context Menus using a REG file

*note The downloadable .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry keys below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

NoTrayContextMenu DWORD

(delete) = Enable
1 = Disable

1. Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Enable Taskbar Context Menus for All Users
*note This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_taskbar_context_menus.reg

Download

3. To Disable Taskbar Context Menus for All Users
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_taskbar_context_menus.reg

Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. sign in to apply.

8. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Open Context Menu for Taskbar Icons in Windows 10
• How to Change Height or Width Size of Taskbar in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Context Menus in the Start Menu in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Taskbar Settings in Windows 10

:)

 

Problem with New Context Menu

The option to add a new Rich Text File seems to have disappeared from my Context Menu and I'm not sure why.

I'm not computer savvy, but after a bit of Googling I read how you can add and delete options from the New Context Menu though the Registry Editor. When I went to check it the .rtf folder under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT still has it's ShellNew folder so I'm not
sure what the issue is or if perhaps there's something wrong with it. I also found a tool to easily enable/disable file types on the New Context Menu, and .rtf is listed along with everything else and checked off as "enabled" but for some reason is not showing
up, even after I tried disabling and enabling it a couple of times. This is extremely frustrating as that's the file type I use the most.

Any suggestions as to what the problem is or how to fix it?

 

CCC Context menu

I was recently greeted to a new entry in my desktop context menu after installing 8.12 drivers with the Catalyst Control Center:





I have no idea what the second entry does, since clicking it results in nothing happening.
So I open up CCC and find this new section:





It's completely disabled. I only have a single HD3850. The IGP on my mobo is nVidia, which is disabled anyway.

I spent the last hour or so finding a way to remove the second entry, and this is the only thing I could find:
Deleting this key removes both entries from the context menu
Code: KEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\ACE[/quote] This solved one problem and caused another. I do not like the tray icon, so I have it disabled, so the only way I know to get into CCC is via the context menu. Does anyone know of a way to disable just the "Configure Additive Graphics" entry and keep the CCC entry?

If I kept both disabled, is there some sort of shortcut I could make to get there instead? I don't want to have to go to Display->Settings->Advanced->CCC every time.
EDIT: Just made a hotkey to get there. *Smile

 

Feature suggestion: Add right-click menu

Suggestion: Please add a Windows 7 Jump-List and/or right-click menu to the GPU-Z icon in the Windows taskbar. Possible menus in it would be "Exit" and "About GPU-Z...".
Maybe also "Switch to tab 1/Switch to tab 2/Switch to videocard 1/Switch to videocard 2" too.
Examples of programs that have such menus are ICQ, Skype, AIM.

NOTE: It seems for a right-click menu, Windows 7 is not needed - it works on WinXP and Vista too.
But even a Windows 7 Jump-list may be good enough.
What do you think?

 

Bluetooth + right click on taskbar?

#2: I think you're referring to the immersive context menu.
Please see
https://www.askvg.com/tip-get-rid-of...ws-10-taskbar/
- but I doubt you'll be able to use that in your situation, for the same reason.

Then there's this:
Enable or Disable Taskbar Context Menus in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

I don't find this is particularly slow- nor for program icons- jump lists, frequent, tasks.

You might be able to use this:
How to Increase the Number of Jump List Items in Windows 10
to limit (rather than increase) the number shown. I don't know if that would help you.

 

Drag & Drop from taskbar context menus - Windows 10

Hi,

Just wanted to know if there is any way to drag & drop from Windows 10 taskbar context-menus? I used to be able to do this from Win8, but this feature seems to be disable with Win10.

Thanx