Some files open with certain programs. For example, .PSD files generally open with Adobe Photoshop and .PDF files open with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Have you ever found that it takes ages to open a program and then, using the program, find and open the file you want? No? Thought not. Well, in today's (short) article I'm going to explain how to make it say "Open with X" or "Edit with X" when you right click certain file types. This is called making custom context menus and this is how it's done:

Making custom context menus is really easy. First of all open your Windows XP, or Vista, control panel and select "Folder Options"

[My control panel here is in classic mode]

Open "Folder Options" and select the "File Types" tab.

For this demonstration I'm going to be using JPEG files and adding the ability to open in Photoshop; but you should, obviously, use the file type of your choice to add the action of you need. Select your file type from the list.

With your desired file type freshly selected, click the "Advanced" button at the bottom of the window to bring up this window:

Click "New..." to open up the most important window of this process. The add new action window.

In the first box, type in the words you wish to have appear on the context menu. Then click "Browse..." and find the executable (.exe) for the program you want to open it with. Click OK and shut down the folder options dialogue(s). As you can see in the image below, when I right click on .JPEG files, now, I see the action I just added. "Edit with Adobe Photoshop".

I hope this article has helped you in some (trivial) way. Take a walk around Daily Tip for more great articles and tips.