What is Nilesoft Shell and how do you install it?
While some users prefer Windows 11’s context menu, the majority of Windows 11 users don’t like it at all. The main problem with Windows 11’s context menu is that most of the useful options are hidden under “Show more options,” meaning you have to make an extra click to perform many important actions. You can get rid of this shortcoming by using Nilesoft Shell, a free tool that allows you to customize the right-click context menu on your Windows PC to your preferences.
There are a number of ways to install the tool on your device. That’s also possible download the installation file or use package managers like Winget, Scoop or Chocolatey. I recommend downloading the installation file and installing the tool manually. I also tried installing it via Windows Package Manager but that failed and showed an exit code error 1603.
Either way, once you install the tool on your device, you can quickly experience the changes it brings by right-clicking anywhere on an empty area of your desktop and checking the context menu. In the context menu you will find some new options, such as Terminal, File Manager and Go To.
Before you explore the tool further, you will need to register it first. To do this, hold down the Shift key and right-click on the taskbar. Hover over ‘Shell’, select ‘Manager’ and then click ‘Register’. Click the “OK” button to complete the process. Windows File Explorer will restart and then you are ready to explore and use the tool.
The best thing about Nilesoft Shell is that you can add or remove items from the context menu. To do this, hold down the Shift key, right-click on the taskbar, hover over ‘Shell’ and select ‘Directory’. Open the “Imports” folder and then open the “Modify.nss” file. You now need the to delete command to remove an item from the context menu. For example, to remove the Paste option, type the following command in the Notepad window:
remove(find="paste")
Click the Ctrl+S keys to save the changes. Then go to the desktop, hold down the Ctrl key and right-click. You will notice that the Paste option is no longer available in the context menu.
Similarly, you can also add any item to the context menu, but for that you need to use the item command instead of the to delete command. For example, if you want to add Google Chrome to the context menu, the command would look something like this:
item(title='Google Chrome', cmd='C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe', image='C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe')
Within the CMD and image apostrophes you will need to type the path of the application you want to add. In the example above, this is the path for Google Chrome. Save the changes. Then go to the desktop, hold down the Ctrl key and right-click. You will see that the Chrome option is now available in the context menu.
By default, Windows 11’s context menu has the same theme as the overall Windows system. However, Nilesoft Shell allows you to set a special theme and color for your context menu, independent of the system-wide Windows theme.
To change the theme of the context menu, go to the “Directory” folder again, select the “Imports” folder and then open the “Theme.nss” file. You now need to edit the name and dark entries if you want to switch between light and dark modes for the context menu. For example, if you want the context menu to appear in dark mode, type dark in the name entry and WHERE in the dark entrance. Save the changes and you will see the context menu in dark mode.
The color input allows you to change the background color of the context menu. For example, to give the context menu a pink background, get the color code for pink and paste it into the color input. The opacity input allows you to adjust the transparency of the context menu. You can choose a value between 0 And 100 for opacity, with 0 being the least transparent and 100 being the most transparent.
The effect input allows you to add various effects to the context menu. For a transparent effect, type 1 in the effect input. Enter 2 applies a blur effect while entering 3 gives the context menu an acrylic effect.
Once you’ve applied all the changes you want, press Ctrl+S to save them and then open the context menu to see the effects in action.
There are plenty of additions you can make to the theme file to make the context menu more attractive. You can use the Nilesoft Shell documentation page to get an idea of everything else you can add to the theme file. This is what the theme file looks like on my system.
theme
{
name="dark"
dark=true
font.name= "Ink Free"
view = view.compact
background
{
color=#453937
opacity=70
effect=1
}
image.align=2
}
This was all about Nilesoft Shell. The reason I prefer this tool over other context menu customizers is that it offers a wide range of customization options. From adding or removing items to changing the theme and customizing the font, you can do it all with Nilesoft Shell.
#app #finally #perfect #Windows #context #menu