Add Open Settings Context Menu in Windows 10

You can add Open Settings to the context menu in Windows 10. This will allow you to open the Settings app directly from the right-click menu of the Desktop or in File Explorer. Here is how it can be done.

Windows 10 comes with a new app called "Settings". It is a Universal app created to replace the Control Panel for both touch screens and classic Desktop users. It consists of several pages which bring new options to manage Windows 10 along with some older options inherited from the classic Control Panel. It can be useful to add the Open Settings context menu item to open it faster.

To add Open Settings context menu in Windows 10, you need to 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\DesktopBackground\Shell\Windows.OpenControlPanel]
"CanonicalName"="{D3FB49E5-E542-4CC2-BE98-16FDC1CCEDF3}"
"CommandStateHandler"="{E410F8AE-00A1-4A1B-8247-924705718354}"
"CommandStateSync"=""
"Description"="@shell32.dll,-31361"
"FolderHandler"="{0AC0837C-BBF8-452A-850D-79D08E667CA7}"
"Icon"="shell32.dll,-16826"
"MUIVerb"="@shell32.dll,-31312"
"VerbHandler"="{61d5e157-a810-47e9-9d69-f1b91bab467b}"
"VerbName"="ChangeSettings"
"Position"="Bottom"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\Shell\Windows.OpenControlPanel\command]
"DelegateExecute"="{E410F8AE-00A1-4A1B-8247-924705718354}"

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 "SettingsContextMenu.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 "Open Settings" in the list of available commands, select "Desktop" on the right side and click the "Add" button (See the screenshot above). You can repeat this step for the "Folder" and "All Files" items in the right to add the Open Settings right-click menu command to the context menu of a folder or a file.

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.

2 thoughts on “Add Open Settings Context Menu in Windows 10”

  1. Hello Sergey,
    Is there a way to modify the list of folders that windows shows in its windows.movetomenu ?
    There are old folders that remain in the list, and the one that I often use is regularly removed from the list…
    I have not found where this data is stored.
    Thank you for your advice.
    Fred

    1. I have the same question.
      Only solution I found was to hold [shift] while using the Send to menu… this moves items rather than copying them. For the life of me I could not find a way to do this without using the keyboard, but I hope this helps. Cheers.

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