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Jan 19

CyberNotes: How to Customize the Windows XP/Vista Send To Menu

Posted in: CyberNotes, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows, Windows Vista

This article was written on March 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

One of the features that many people overlook in Windows is the “Send To” menu that is presented when you right-click on a file or folder. This menu offers you an array of things you can do with that particular file or folder including compressing it to a ZIP file, emailing it to a friend, and much more.

I have never used the “Send To” menu because it doesn’t offer any features that make it useful, despite it being manually customizable (XP instructions and Vista instructions). I started looking around for something that would really knock my socks off, and I found just the tool…Send To Toys (Download Mirror for version 2.5).

Send To Toys is essentially an application that makes customizing the Send To menu even easier than it already is. It also offers some functionalities that you won’t be able to do without the help of this handy little program:

Send To Toys Control Panel Applet allows you to manage the Send To system menu content, and configure the various Send To Toys settings:
“Add to Send To menu” and “Remove from Send To menu” allows you to personalize the Send To system menu for drives, folders, and programs.
Send To “Clipboard (as name)” copies the name of the file or files to the clipboard. Hold down the CTRL key to change the settings for this extension.
Send To “Clipboard” command line utility copies the output of a command to the clipboard.

Send To “Command Prompt” opens a DOS console window, setting the current directory to the selected file/folder.
Send To “Default Mail Recipient” creates a new e-mail with attachments and predefined defaults for the recipients, subject, and message.
Send To “Favorites” adds a shortcut to your Favorites list.
Send To “Folder…” sends a file or files to another folder, you will be shown a dialog box that lets you choose where the files should be copied, moved, or have a shortcut created.
Send To “Quick Launch” adds a shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar.
Send To “Recycle Bin” sends a file or files to the Recycle Bin. Hold down the CTRL key to perform a file shredding.
Send To “Run…” sends a file or files to the Run command dialog.

The main reason that I wanted to get this utility was for the “Send to Folder…” option. I’m constantly moving files around on my PC and with this tool I can easily copy or move files from one location to another. Since my desktop is the most common place that I move files to, I decided to designate that as my default location, which means I can just select the Folder option from the Send To menu and press enter to move a file or folder to my desktop.

This is a freeware application and after you get it installed there will be both a shortcut in your Start Menu as well as in the Control Panel. It is compatible with Windows 2000, 2003, XP, and Vista so it will work for almost everyone! Give it a try because you might as well try to make the Send To menu actually useful.