RightClick Wrangler

RightClick Wrangler is a native Windows desktop utility for inspecting, organizing, troubleshooting, and safely customizing File Explorer context menus. It combines a full menu editor with backups, diagnostics, performance testing, Open With and Send To management, reusable menu packs, and a large built-in command library.

Current version: 0.9.3 — hardened Open With safety and readable backup/restore history.

Important

RightClick Wrangler modifies per-user Windows Shell registrations. It creates backups before supported changes, protects executable/script associations from editing, and deliberately leaves Windows default-app UserChoice data alone. Review the safety model and test prerelease builds on a noncritical machine first.

Highlights

Area	What it provides
Main menu editor	Discovers effective menus for files, folders, drives, backgrounds, and the desktop; shows a live context-menu preview; enables, disables, removes, and reorders entries where Windows safely permits it.
Explorer Quick Edit	Adds Edit This Menu with RightClick Wrangler directly to Explorer so the menu for an actual file or folder can be edited in place.
Command Library	Includes 163 curated commands for paths, clipboard tools, checksums, terminals, Windows settings, administration, developer tools, and supported third-party integrations.
Open With Manager	Searches extensions as you type, inventories per-user and registered application handlers, and limits cleanup to positively verified stale or duplicate per-user entries.
Send To Manager	Adds programs and folder destinations, renames or removes shortcuts, opens the real SendTo folder, and backs up removed entries.
New Menu Manager	Manages ShellNew file types and template-backed New menu entries with reversible changes.
Diagnostics and Safe Mode	Finds broken commands, missing handler DLLs, stale shortcuts and associations, and can temporarily isolate non-Microsoft shell extensions for troubleshooting.
Performance Optimizer	Measures real Shell menu construction in isolated helper processes and identifies handlers associated with menu delay.
Lean Menu Optimizer	Produces a reviewable optimization plan using Balanced, Essential, or Keep Everything profiles, with complete rollback support.
Menu Packs	Exports and imports Wrangler-created menus as reusable .rcwpack files.
Backup and Restore	Creates automatic snapshots before supported changes, labels them with readable local date/time and reason, and creates a rollback snapshot before every restore.

A more exhaustive implementation and feature inventory is available in docs/FEATURES-AND-IMPLEMENTATION.md.

Safety model

RightClick Wrangler uses different strategies according to ownership and risk:

• Wrangler-owned commands can be edited, reordered, exported, disabled, or removed.
• Eligible static registry verbs can be safely shadow-disabled per user and, when practical, adopted into a Wrangler-managed proxy for ordering.
• COM shell extensions can be inventoried, measured, and blocked per user by CLSID, but Windows does not provide a supported universal ordering mechanism for them.
• Machine-wide and protected Windows entries are displayed as read-only when destructive changes would be unsafe.
• Executable, script, installer, shortcut, and registry file types are inspection-only in Open With management.
• Open With backups contain only OpenWithList and OpenWithProgids; they never capture or restore protected default-app UserChoice data.
• Automatic Open With cleanup does not delete ProgIDs. It removes only duplicate per-user MRU references or application references proven to point to a missing executable, with a second validation immediately before deletion.

Backups, logs, and settings are stored outside the installation directory:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\RightClick Wrangler\Backups
%LOCALAPPDATA%\RightClick Wrangler\Logs
%LOCALAPPDATA%\RightClick Wrangler\settings.json

Quick start from source

Requirements

• Windows 11, 64-bit
• .NET 8 SDK or newer
• Administrator rights only for operations that genuinely require them

Extract the repository and double-click:

1-BUILD-AND-RUN.bat

Or run:

dotnet run --project .\src\RightClickWrangler.App\RightClickWrangler.App.csproj

Detailed prerequisites, commands, outputs, packaging, and troubleshooting are in BUILDING.md.

Build outputs

Script	Result
1-BUILD-AND-RUN.bat	Restores, builds, and launches the Debug configuration.
2-PUBLISH-PORTABLE.bat	Creates a self-contained, single-file x64 build at release\app\RightClickWrangler.exe.
3-BUILD-INSTALLER.bat	Uses Inno Setup 6 to create release\installer\RightClick-Wrangler-Setup.exe.
0-PUBLISH-TO-GITHUB.bat	Validates the source and creates or updates WiredWest/RightClick-Wrangler with minimal prompting.
4-CREATE-GITHUB-RELEASE.bat	Builds the portable package and installer, generates SHA-256 hashes, tags the commit, and creates or updates the matching GitHub Release.

GitHub publishing

The repository package is preconfigured for:

WiredWest/RightClick-Wrangler

Double-click 0-PUBLISH-TO-GITHUB.bat. The guided script can install missing Git/GitHub CLI tools, authenticate through the browser, validate the .NET build, preserve existing repository history, apply the repository description and topics, commit the package, and push main.

See GITHUB-PUBLISHING.md before the first push, especially when the destination repository already contains files.

Repository layout

src/RightClickWrangler.App/    WPF application and embedded command catalog
installer/                     Inno Setup installer definition
branding/                      Header, icon, social, avatar, and UI graphic assets
docs/                          Detailed implementation documentation
.github/                       CI, release automation, and issue templates
tools/                         GitHub publishing and release scripts
Build-Release.ps1              Reproducible portable/installer build pipeline
WINDOWS-TEST-CHECKLIST.md      Manual Windows regression checklist
SECURITY-NOTES.md              Registry and Shell implementation safety notes

Windows limitations

Windows does not expose a supported API that allows arbitrary ordering of every menu item contributed by every third-party COM shell extension. RightClick Wrangler therefore reports what is fully controllable, what can be reversibly disabled, and what must remain locked or read-only rather than pretending all entries are equally editable.

The Windows 11 modern/classic menu switch is global to Explorer and may not visually update until the next Explorer session. Wrangler sends Shell refresh notifications but does not normally terminate explorer.exe automatically.

Releases and updates

The application checks the GitHub release feed for WiredWest/RightClick-Wrangler. When a release contains an asset with Setup in its filename and an .exe extension, the update interface can offer that installer.

Release notes for this version are in RELEASE-NOTES-v0.9.3.md. The complete historical log is in CHANGELOG.md.

Contributing and security

• Read CONTRIBUTING.md before changing registry or Shell behavior.
• Use the supplied bug and feature issue forms.
• Report security-sensitive problems through a private GitHub security advisory as described in SECURITY.md.
• Run the manual WINDOWS-TEST-CHECKLIST.md before publishing a release.

License

RightClick Wrangler is distributed under the MIT License.

Copyright © 2026 Wired West Computing.