How do I remove the right-click menu "open in Windows terminal"?

[rmwxxwmr]

Is it possible to turn this feature on or off with an option?

[zadjii-msft]

Ah no, we don't have a setting for that currently. Thanks for the request!

I'm curious as to why the context menu isn't working for you - is there a reason you want to be able to disable it?

---

I'm also terribly worried that we can't control whether this is shown at runtime or not. Maybe in OpenTerminalHere::GetState? We'll probably want to wait till fOkToBeSlow, then load the settings, then check if it's enabled or not.

[PathogenDavid]

A workaround was posted in a similar issue:

Add a value named {9f156763-7844-4dc4-b2b1-901f640f5155} to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked and restart explorer. The menu item will be gone. (HKEY_CURRENT_USER works too.)

I'm curious as to why the context menu isn't working for you - is there a reason you want to be able to disable it?

In my case I wanted to remove it because I'm still waiting on a handful of planned Terminal features before I really start using it, so until then it's just clutter.

IMO, removing shell extensions should always be an option. For every app that thinks it's being helpful adding its self to the Explorer context menu there's 10 more that are adding clutter.

That being said, it appears that Terminal is adding the shell extension via the appxmanifest, so I can imagine it's not as simple to provide an opt-out compared to traditional apps. (Maybe setting that HKCU\...\Blocked value is viable? Needing the restart is not the best UX though.)

[scx]

@rmwxxwmr

Is it possible to turn this feature on or off with an option?

To disable this menu entry, just add the REG_SZ key in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked. As the name, type {9F156763-7844-4DC4-B2B1-901F640F5155}. You don't have to enter any value, but I recommend to use something like WindowsTerminal or so. Then you have to restart Explorer.

Full guide:

1. Run the following command in an elevated Command Prompt (e.g. Open Menu Start, search for cmd.exe, then right click on Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator:

REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked" /v "{9F156763-7844-4DC4-B2B1-901F640F5155}" /d "WindowsTerminal"

2. Restart Explorer.

Alternatively, you can import this Windows Registry file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked]
"{9F156763-7844-4DC4-B2B1-901F640F5155}"="WindowsTerminal"

Disable_WindowsTerminal.reg.txt

Don't forget to restart Explorer.

How did I come up with this?
Search Windows Registry for WindowsTerminal in HKCR (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT).
Found:

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PackagedCom\ClassIndex\{9F156763-7844-4DC4-B2B1-901F640F5155}\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.3.2651.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PackagedCom\Package\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.3.2651.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Class\{9F156763-7844-4DC4-B2B1-901F640F5155}

You can use similar approach to disable other Microsoft shell extensions, e.g. Skype.

See also:
https://superuser.com/questions/1539765/how-to-remove-share-with-skype-from-the-windows-explorer-context-menu

[scx]

@zadjii-msft

I'm curious as to why the context menu isn't working for you - is there a reason you want to be able to disable it?

I cannot speak for others, but I would like to put all open shell here commands in one place. Moreover, I want to enable this for directory background as well.

Why is Windows Terminal not good enough for me?

• Slow startup: When I only need to execute one command or two, I prefer to run Command Prompt in Win32 Console.
• Unable to detach tabs and move them between windows.
• Unable to switch between tabs by mouse scroll (see: MATE Terminal).

[oyealex]

Your right click menu is so cool

[DHowett]

Slow startup: When I only need to execute one command or two, I prefer to run Command Prompt in Win32 Console.

How much of this is attributable to the default profile being PowerShell? You .. know you can change it, right? 😄

[Mystic8b]

Change the letter "o" to a capital letter, please.
Open in Windows Terminal

[jleaves]

I cannot speak for others, but I would like to put all open shell here commands in one place. Moreover, I want to enable this for directory background as well.

@scx How did you achieve this? It's soooo cool. I was planning to beautify my own context menu, but I was stuck on grouping commands into sub-menus. Would you mind sharing the relevant registry file for your right click menu?

[kenijo]

I cannot speak for others, but I would like to put all open shell here commands in one place. Moreover, I want to enable this for directory background as well.

@scx How did you achieve this? It's soooo cool. I was planning to beautify my own context menu, but I was stuck on grouping commands into sub-menus. Would you mind sharing the relevant registry file for your right click menu?

I think he is using FileMenuTools for this.
It is now a paid software but if you look around for v7.1, it was the last free version available I believe.

[zadjii-msft]

@arnoldcui What you're seeing is #8936, which was fixed in #8977 (though, not yet released)

[ilija1]

I'd also mention that in some versions of Windows (possibly Windows 10 included), having a lot of context menu items can have a noiticeable negative impact on overall OS performance and responsiveness. For that reason alone I tend to remove pretty much everything from context menus and disable pretty much all of the OS GUI animations and other fluff.

Some people prefer a very snappy, fluid, and minimalist OS experience. It feels bad to wait longer than say 15ms(or whatever the minimum time that humans are able to perceive is) for a context menu to pop up.

[Konohomaru]

@scx How to make Context Menu like yours?

[Mystic8b]

In recent updates, the type has changed to {02DB545A-3E20-46DE-83A5-1329B1E88B6B}.
Changed reg file of respected @scx
Remove Open in Windows Terminal.reg.txt

[DHowett]

The CLSID changes based on which version of Terminal you have installed.

[Mystic8b]

It is very uncomfortable. I really look forward to the opportunity to disable the item in the context menu from the terminal settings.

[levicki]

@zadjii-msft

I'm curious as to why the context menu isn't working for you - is there a reason you want to be able to disable it?

For me it is simple -- I don't need it, and the more context menu options are there, it is harder to find the one I want (especially when explorer starts randomly hiding and/or reordering some of them using some blackbox algorithm).

Furthermore, I want the Terminal app (and also any other app including say Visual Studio which is also adding a context menu item) to ask me on first run whether to register / enable context menu extension or not.

Rationale:
On my computer I should have the right to decide what is helpful for me, not developers, not project managers, not other users' feature requests.

Yet Microsoft keeps repeating this same user-hostile pattern over and over every time they add a new feature to any of their products -- instead of designing for feature discoverability by showing a dialog after update describing said new feature and offering 3 options (Enable, Disable, Change later in Settings), Microsoft forces the feature on everyone, and then only if enough people complain they grudgingly add an option to disable it.

Asking for user consent isn't rocket science. Not asking for it only shows disrespect (if not utmost contempt) that developers have for users.