Add Details Pane Context Menu in Windows 10

Details Pane Icon

You can add Details Pane to the context menu in Windows 10. This will allow you to toggle the visibility of the Details pane in File Explorer.

The Details pane shows various information about the object selected in File Exporer. This includes the file modification date, the file size, the author of the file and other information which can be related to file properties in Windows.

The Details pane can be enabled or disabled using a special button in the Ribbon user interface of File Explorer. It is available on the View tab to toggle visibility of the Details pane. Having this command in the context menu is very useful. It will allow you to enable or disable the Details pane much faster without switching to the appropriate Ribbon tab.

To Add Details Pane Context Menu in Windows 10, do the following.

Apply the Registry tweak listed below. Paste its contents inside Notepad and save as a *.reg file.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shell\Windows.previewpane]
"CanonicalName"="{1380d028-a77f-4c12-96c7-ea276333f982}"
"Description"="@shell32.dll,-31416"
"Icon"="shell32.dll,-16814"
"MUIVerb"="@shell32.dll,-31415"
"PaneID"="{43abf98b-89b8-472d-b9ce-e69b8229f019}"
"PaneVisibleProperty"="PreviewPaneSizer_Visible"
"PolicyID"="{17067f8d-981b-42c5-98f8-5bc016d4b073}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Windows.previewpane]
"CanonicalName"="{1380d028-a77f-4c12-96c7-ea276333f982}"
"Description"="@shell32.dll,-31416"
"Icon"="shell32.dll,-16814"
"MUIVerb"="@shell32.dll,-31415"
"PaneID"="{43abf98b-89b8-472d-b9ce-e69b8229f019}"
"PaneVisibleProperty"="PreviewPaneSizer_Visible"
"PolicyID"="{17067f8d-981b-42c5-98f8-5bc016d4b073}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Windows.previewpane]
"CanonicalName"="{1380d028-a77f-4c12-96c7-ea276333f982}"
"Description"="@shell32.dll,-31416"
"Icon"="shell32.dll,-16814"
"MUIVerb"="@shell32.dll,-31415"
"PaneID"="{43abf98b-89b8-472d-b9ce-e69b8229f019}"
"PaneVisibleProperty"="PreviewPaneSizer_Visible"
"PolicyID"="{17067f8d-981b-42c5-98f8-5bc016d4b073}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LibraryFolder\background\shell\Windows.previewpane]
"CanonicalName"="{1380d028-a77f-4c12-96c7-ea276333f982}"
"Description"="@shell32.dll,-31416"
"Icon"="shell32.dll,-16814"
"MUIVerb"="@shell32.dll,-31415"
"PaneID"="{43abf98b-89b8-472d-b9ce-e69b8229f019}"
"PaneVisibleProperty"="PreviewPaneSizer_Visible"
"PolicyID"="{17067f8d-981b-42c5-98f8-5bc016d4b073}"

In Notepad, press Ctrl + S or execute the File - Save item from the File menu. This will open the Save dialog. There, type or copy-paste the name "Details pane.reg" including quotes. Double quotes are important to ensure that the file will get the "*.reg" extension and not *.reg.txt. You can save the file to any desired location, for example, you can put it in your Desktop folder.

Double click the file you created, confirm the import operation and you are done!

To understand how this tweak works, refer to my previous article where I explained how to add any Ribbon command to the Context menu in Windows 10. See

How to add any Ribbon command to the right click menu in Windows 10

In short, all the Ribbon commands are stored under this Registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell

You can export the desired command and modify the exported *.Reg in order to add it to the context menu of files, folders, or any other object visible in File Explorer.

To save your time, I made ready-to-use Registry files. You can download them here:

Download Registry Files

Alternatively, you can use Context Menu Tuner. It will allow you to add any Ribbon command to the context menu.

Select "Details pane" in the list of available commands, select "All Files" on the right side and click the "Add" button. See the screenshot above. Now, add the same command to Folder, Drive and Library. You can get the app here:

Download Context Menu Tuner

That's it.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

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