Working the list

The table in the middle holds one row per entry. A submenu shows its children indented underneath it, so a row is either an entry or one of its children. Selection, right-click and the arrow keys all reach a child the same way they reach its parent.

The columns

The Appears on column says "All Files" rather than *, and ".zip" rather than a path with SystemFileAssociations in the middle. * and Folder are registry shorthand, and they say nothing to the person deciding whether to delete a row. The real registry path sits in the tooltip. Hover the cell to read it.

Sorting, and the third click

Clicking a column header sorts by it. A second click on the same header reverses the direction. A third puts the table back into the order the rows were collected in. The header of the active column carries an arrow, so you can tell which of the five columns the order comes from.

Flags and the icon column do not sort. A row of symbols has no order worth the click.

The search field

The field above the table reads more than the name:

• the display name and the key name
• the registry path
• the command line
• for a COM handler, the CLSID and the server DLL
• for a Win11 verb, the package name, the full package name and the CLSID

It applies to the three tabs that show scanned entries: Categories, File types and Programs. It works even when nothing is selected in the tree on the left.

A submenu stays in the list when one of its children matches. Searching for the child and being told there is no such entry would be wrong, because the menu does offer it.

The Services tab brings a search of its own, above the tool list. Favourites and Backups are short enough to be shown whole.

Typing git leaves one entry standing, and the right-hand side says where it lives: Directory\Background\shell\git_shell, under HKCU, with %V rather than %1 because it hangs on a folder background.

The detail pane

Select a row and the pane on the right fills. It carries, top to bottom:

• the display name, with a folder button beside it that opens Explorer with the program itself picked out
• Registry Path and Raw Value
• Icon, Appears on and Position
• Command, or CLSID and Server DLL for a COM handler, or Package for a Win11 verb
• the children, when the entry is a submenu
• every flag that the table had room for only as a symbol, spelled out in words together with the reason it holds

Every field can be selected and copied, so a registry path goes straight into regedit. When the program behind an entry is no longer installed, the pane says so in a red sentence. The table has room for the colour alone.

One COM handler, opened: registry path, CLSID, the DLL behind it, and three short reasons why nothing here can be edited. The key belongs to HKLM, the text is produced at runtime, and the entry is read-only for this account.

Right-click

A right-click offers exactly the actions that would change something about the item clicked. With a multi-selection, the ones that only make sense for a single entry drop out. In the empty area below the last row it offers New.

Right-clicking a row that is not part of the selection makes that row the selection first. Otherwise the menu would list what one row can do and then do it to twenty others.

The trees on the left answer a right-click too, each with the target it stands for. A category row creates in that category. A row in the file type tree creates for that extension alone, which is the shortest way to "this entry, but only for .png".

The keyboard