Disable Desktop Context Menu

[BackHomeAgain]

I have disabled the desktop context menu by editing the "Registry".  It requires a computer restart.  A mouse right click then shows no menu.  Below is my code to do this in a script.

$key3 = "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer"
$val3 = "NoViewContextMenu"
$ContextMenu = RegRead($key3, $val3)   ; Save  0 = Menu is available
$ctxMenu = 1

RegWrite($key3, $val3, "REG_DWORD", $ctxMenu)   ; 1 = Menu is not available

; Do something here

; Restore to previous

RegWrite($key3, $val3, "REG_DWORD", $ContextMenu)   ; 0 = Menu now available

Is there a DLLCALL function to set the parameters to do this?

I have modified "wallpaper" setting in similar code.  However, there was DLL example found in the forums.  Is there a list out there of all DLL functions?  I found partial list.  Most of the information was about modifying the context menu.

[spudw2k]

I'm failing to find a DLL or API call to do this.  It does appear though that just restarting Explorer.exe takes care of it, in lieu of a full reboot.

[BackHomeAgain]

spudw2k,

Run("explorer.exe", "", @SW_HIDE) doesn't hide the window and the context menu remains after setting the RegWrite  to "1" 

Is this a possible candidate for a new function?  My work around is to create a full screen invisible window where a mouse right click prevents the desktop context menu from appearing.  I use right click to do other things and I don't want the menu to keep popping up.

[Nine]

I think the solution would reside in hooking the right click and check the context of it.  If it is on desktop, then stop it, otherwise let it go...

[spudw2k]

@BackHomeAgain What I meant was is if you set the NoViewContextMenu value to 1, then terminate and restart explorer.exe (no need for @SW_HIDE), than the context menu is disabled.  

I like the way @Nine thinks.  If the intent is just to temporarily block the Desktop contextmenu, then hooking could be an ideal solution.

[jguinch]

There is a way to do what you want, without having to close the session or the explorer, through the Local Group Policies. 

The Local Group Policies are stored in .pol format. The good new is that Microsoft provides a command line tool called "LGPO.EXE", which can interact with this kind of file.

1. Download LGPO.exe : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=55319 (LGPO.zip)
2. Create a NoViewContextMenu.txt file, as indicated bellow 
3. Build a policy file from the text file, using the following command : LGPO.exe /r NoViewContextMenu.txt /w NoViewContextMenu.pol
4. Import the policy in the Local Group Policy (it's a user policy, so use /u) with that command : LGPO.exe /u NoViewContextMenu.pol (you will need Admin rights)
5. That's all. The next step is to automate it using AutoIt (the steps 1 to 3 have to be done just one time)

NoViewContextMenu.txt

; Disable the context menu
User
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
NoViewContextMenu
DWORD:1

Warning : since the Home edition of Windows does not support the Local Group Policy editor, I don't know if it works with this tool 

 

Edit : I didn't try to execute the script using a different account, but in this case you will probably need to execute the gpupdate command  to apply the change

Edited January 22, 2022 by jguinch

[Deye]

  On 1/19/2022 at 8:53 PM, BackHomeAgain said:

I use right click to do other things and I don't want the menu to keep popping up.

Expand  

You can probably close them menus on the fly before you continue "things"

ControlSend("Program Manager", "", "[CLASS:SysListView32; INSTANCE:1]", "{RCTRL}{ALT}")

 

[BackHomeAgain]

The following works for me.

;Create full screen window to block desktop context menu.
;The "1" in WinSetTrans function is important. Also hides the task bar.
;The right mouse click is used to pause and continue the script.
;Left mouse click stops the script and all settings restored.

$hGUI = GUICreate("", @DesktopWidth+10, @DesktopHeight+10, -1, -1, 0x80000000)
GuiSetState()
WinSetTrans($hGUI, "", 1)  ;Make window invisible.

The GUI is deleted and the screen is back to normal. 

[junkew]

So no need to block windows+d to show desktop and then still use the contextmenu (or ctrl+esc and probably some other windows shortcut keys) ?

 

[Nine]

Agree with @junkew.  That is not a robust solution.  But overall, nobody asked why OP would need it only on partial situations.  Seems to me there is something underlying there.