Expanded Context Menu Question

Ok, I know about the Shift-Right Click for the Expanded Context Menu, but I was wondering of anyone had found a way to make that the default right-click menu?

And just as a bit of added rant ...

I utterly despise what the designers have done (never blame the programmers, they only do what they're told - it's the Project Managers and Designers who are to blame) with Windows Explorer since Vista. You would have think they'd have learned something from the POS they called Vista. How utterly contemptuous are these people?

I'm waiting for a good replacement for Explorer (64-Bit) - yes, I've seen Ultra Explorer - frankly I like Explorer++ but am waiting for the context menu to be added in - I'm not paying for what should have been part of the OS (but if Explorer++ gets developed enough, I'll certainly send a donation in).

Gotta laugh at this response from one the MS MVPs (Mark Ferguson)
"The new Libraries span drives, and it was also removed due to a user anxiety problem, usually caused by reserved space allocations for the Virtual Memory or TEMP set asides. If you want free space data, rightclick the drive icon and Properties.
In 7 it is intended that you use your Libraries to handle data, and leave the data management to the system. It was an 'ease of use' issue. For the more technically minded, (an unbelievably small minority) the data is still there to see."

And from MVP Ronnie Vernon we get -
"Mark's answer was technically correct, the free space reporting for the Status Bar was removed when the new Libraries were included in the OS. Because of the way the Status Bar reports free space and because it was designed long before the Libraries were conceived, it was seen to be reporting inaccurate information about the free space on the drives. There was a choice of completely recoding the way the Status Bar reported the free space or simply removing that capability. Since there are many other ways to see the free space for a drive, they decided to remove that code.

Another reason is that the Status Bar has always been close to useless when reporting free space, since it is not a realtime component. If the free space on a drive changes, the Status Bar will not reflect the new free space number until there is a refresh of Windows Explorer."

All at -
Drive "free space" is missing in Windows Explorer, why?

So, as someone else astutely pointed out, let's not FIX something that (supposedly) wasn't working just right (according to them, always suited me just fine!), we'll just solve the problem by removing it entirely.

What does it take to become a VIP? The number of times you tell someone higher up "Yes, that's a great idea!" ?

My point in the rant is that they (MS & their reps) have made themselves out to be simple liars - if a 3rd party program can do what we ask, then what does that say about their programmers & designers? They say it can't be done, then someone else goes and does it. Seems like liars to me (or incompetents trying to cover up that fact).

They did get a lot right with W7, imho, only had to hunt for one set of drivers (odd though, since it was an IDE RAID card that XP and Windows Update found right away, but W7 & WU didn't this time around). Haven't encountered any significant problems with 32-bit software running on 64-bit (keeps fingers crossed).

It's just beyond me how simple stuff like this gets beyond the QA stage - doesn't anyone at MS question decisions???

At any rate, thanks will be in order if anyone can help out with the context menu question (or any addition alternative file managers)

Have you tried this one?

xplorer² lite: free windows explorer replacement (file manager)

Xplorer2 Lite ...

I'll take a look at it (off-hand it looks like it was designed for XP, don't know that it supports 64-bit). I do like the "look" of it - so far none of the replacements I've seen can emulate the look of W7 (or Vista for that matter, since the difference is practically nil). What I find saddest is that things could have been so much better with very little thought and effort. Now it just takes more thought and effort to correct the mistakes.

No one has any other suggestions for this? (I know Explorer++ Explorer++ - A small and fast file manager for Windows is working on a lot of these issues.