Vista - question on drop down boxes

I have 2 questions.

When you right click on a program you get the box that opens giving you all kinds of options; run as administrator, scan with ..., etc. What do you call that box?

I am running Vista, but a friend is running XP. She used to have listed in that box the option to scan with her anti virus program, but she no longer does. Is there a way, in XP, to add this to that box?

Do you mean the Windows Explorer "Context Menu"?

Hello Nikilet,

I believe you are referring to the (right click) context menu as well. If available, there should be an option in the antivirus program settings that will add that to the context menu.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I continued using all the terms I could think of to describe what I'm looking for and then Googling them. What I finally found them under is right-click menus. I found a couple of sites that described how to add and delete things from them, but it would appear you have to go into the registry to do it and although I don't think it would be all that hard, the directions were not very precise or clear.

If you can give me step-by-step, clear instructions on how to do it, please do. I'd really like to be able to add the item "Scan with SecureIt" to her menu so that she could right click and scan email attachments and download files before she opens them.

Right now her computer is headed to the repair shop 100 miles away. I called SecureIt and they could probably have gotten rid of them but these viruses have apparently done something wherein she has absolutely no Internet connection. I was on the phone with her ISP 3 different times and with 3 different people there. We tried absolutely everything but nothing worked. They finally came to the conclusion that it had to be something to do with these viruses and the computer repair guy I called for her thinks the same thing after I described everything.

Thanks to Brink and the Vista Tutorials (some of which may work for XP) there are quite a few tutorials regarding the context menus. Here's some:

• How to Expand the Context (Shortcuts) Menu in Vista
• How to Customize the Context Menu for the Start Menu in Vista
• How to Add or Delete Locations to send files, attachments etc, in the ‘Send To’ Menu
• How to Customize the Recycle Bin Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add COPY TO FOLDER and MOVE TO FOLDER to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add Encrypt and Decrypt to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add and Remove a New Menu Item in Vista
• How to Add Take Ownership to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Restore the Search Context Menu Item after Installing the Vista SP1
• How to Add Flip 3D to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Restore or Remove New from the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Remove or Show Drive Letters in the Vista Send To Context Menu
• How to Add View and Print File Directory to the Context Menu in Vista
• How to Add or Remove Copy as Path from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Add or Remove Send To from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Add or Remove Turn Aero On or Off from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Add System Properties to Computer Context Menu in Vista
• How to Create a Drive Shortcut in Vista
• How to Restore or Remove "Restore Previous Versions" from the Vista Context Menu
• How to Restore Missing Default Send To Context Menu Items in Vista
• Extra Context Menu Options – In Windows Explorer, hold down the Shift Key + Right-Click files and folders to get the extra context menu options.
  

Thank you. I clicked on several and think I found one that will help me, although it is for Vista. When she gets her machine back I'll check it out.

Thanks again!!!

Nikilet,

I'm not familiar with the program "SecureIt", but if you go into it's settings, look around for a option to check to add the "Scan with SecureIt" to the (right click) context menu. It may also be called "add to shell" as well.

Thanks for this tip. I will check this out first when she gets her computer back. You've been very helpful and I appreciate it. I'm the farthest thing you'll find from a computer guru (ha!) -- but compared to her I am so I always try to help her out when she has problems.

You're welcome. Please let us know how it went afterwards.

My friend already has her computer back and it was those viruses keeping her from being able to go online. I was amazed and happy to hear that it only cost her $87.

I haven't been able to check her SecureIT yet to see if I can add that Scan with ... to her context menu, but she does have one other issue that started recently, before she took it to the repair shop. Wish I would have thought to ask the repairman to check it but I didn't. She thinks she might have selected something she shouldn't have.

When she logs in, before she gets to the point where she enters her password she has to press the CTRL+ALT+Delete buttons. Is there some way she can go into User Accounts in XP and get this turned off? It's not a big deal, just aggravating.