Select all - Add to Context Menu in Windows 7

How to Add "Select all" to the Context Menu in Windows 7​

   Information

By default in Windows 7, you have to either click on Edit (Menu bar) and Select all, or press CTRL+A to select all items in a Windows Explorer window.

This will show you how to add Select all to the context menu of a file, folder, drive, desktop, and library to be able to easily select all items in a Windows Explorer window in Windows 7.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do this tutorial.

   Warning

Do not use this in Vista since Vista does not have libraries. Use the tutorial below for Vista instead:

How to Add "Select all" to the Context Menu in Vista

EXAMPLE: "Select all" added to context menu
NOTE: You would right click on a file, folder, drive, or on empty area on the desktop, in a folder window, or in a library window to see these.

OPTION ONE

To Add "Select all" to Context Menu

1. Click on the Download button below to download the .reg file below, and save it to your desktop.
Add_Select_all.reg


Download


2. Right click on the downloaded .reg file and click on Merge.

3. Click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK when prompted.

4. Select all has now been added to the context menu in Windows 7.

5. If you like, you can now delete the downloaded .reg file.

OPTION TWO

To Remove "Select all" from Context Menu

NOTE: This is the default setting.
1. Click on the Download button below to download the .reg file below, and save it to your desktop.
Remove_Select_all.reg


Download


2. Right click on the downloaded .reg file and click on Merge.

3. Click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK when prompted.

4. Select all has now been removed from the context menu in Windows 7.

5. If you like, you can now delete the downloaded .reg file.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Select Items with Check Boxes in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Point to Select using Single-click to Open an Item
• How to Turn the "Translucent Selection Rectangle" On or Off in Windows 7 and Vista

 

[mrsureshisha]

Thanks a lot....

 

[Brink]

You're welcome mrsureshisha, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[bamajon1974]

I would like to know how to add the select cascading menu with select all, invert select, and select none features from Windows 8 into the Windows 7 shell for right clicking on the desktop, in a folder, directory and libraries.

Select - Add or Remove from Context Menu in Windows 8

I am not a coder or anything but I would like to know what the analogous shell command lines for invert select and select none would be, as windows.select would be used for select all.

Are the icons used for select all, invert select, and select none in the windows 7 at all?

Also, would it be possible to create a fourth option, wildcard select, where a small command line pops up that you could select by file type? That would be very useful.

 

[Brink]

Hello Bamajon,

Like you, I'm not sure how. I've already tried adding all the registry entries from Windows 8 to Windows 7, but the new "invert selection" and "select none" options from Windows 8 just will not work in Windows 7.

 

[Britton30]

Invert Selection is available in Explorer in the Edit menu. Can it be transmogrified to the right click context?

 

[Brink]

I'll have to do some more playing and testing, but so far I haven't had much luck with it in Windows 7.

 

[bamajon1974]

The keyboard command for invert selection is Alt + E + I. Is there a way to make a shell command in the registry based on these keystrokes?

Crashcourse software (http://www.crashcoursesoftware.com/download/index.htm) has dll files for select all and invert selection that might be useful but they are very old and probably not compatible with x64 windows. Perhaps they might be helpful.

And here is a link to an old code for wildcard select Windows Explorer wildcard selection shell extension - CodeProject

Will this information be helpful?

 

[bamajon1974]

Ok I believe I found a solution but need a little help to finish it off.

So basically I need to know what the keyboard shortcuts for Invert Selection and Select None are and how would you correctly code them in a vbscript file.

I figured out how to add a "Select" parent menu with Select All, Invert Select, and Select None operations based on right click menu based on cascading context menu tutorials from AskVG.

Add Cascading Menus for Your Favorite Programs in Windows 7 Desktop and My Computer Context Menus - Tweaking with Vishal

In registry editor, I added a "Select" menu in

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LibraryFolder\background\shell\]

For example, in

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LibraryFolder\background\shell\]

I added a new key called Menu.
I added MUIVerb string called "Select"
I added Subcommands called "Windows.selectall;SelectInvert;SelectNone
I also added Icon and Position strings but left them blank.

I did the same thing for *, folder, and library, in addition to desktop background.

Then I went to

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

Windows.selectall functionality is already there and the operation works as is. Invert select and select none is not. So i have to add it some way.

So I found this tutorial to add selectall and invert selection on door2windows using vbscripts based on keyboard shortcuts.

How To Select All Files In A Folder Using Context Menu | door2windows

Select all is control + a
Invert select is Alt + E + I
Select none is ???? -- I don't know here, I have seen Shift + A but I don't think it works. Can someone help?

Write a vbscript for invert selection:

set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
oShell.SendKeys "%ei"

Open notepad, save the script as "InvertSelect.vbs" in windows directory.

Write a vbscript for select none:

set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
oShell.SendKeys "+a"

Open notepad, save the script as "SelectNone.vbs" in windows directory.

In ....\CommandStore\Shell, I made "selectinvert" key and "selectnone" key

For selectinvert, the Default string, the value is "Invert Selection"
I added an icon string with a path to an appropriate invert selection icon.
In the selectinvert key, i made a new sub-key and called it "command"
and set the value to the path where I saved InvertSelect.vbs file.

For selectnone, the Default string, the value is "Select None"
I added an icon string with a path to an appropriate select none icon.
In the selectnone key, i made a new sub-key and called it "command"
and set the value to the path where I saved SelectNone.vbs file.

Now I have the cascading Select menu with Select All, Invert Selection, and Select None, all with Icons. Select All works, but the other two don't because I don't think I have the right format for keyboard shortcuts. This should be a simple fix. Can someone help?

Or if there is a better solution, I am all ears.

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

Bamajon,

That's the issue I'm having is to get the Invert Selection, and Select None options to work in Windows 7.

 

[Britton30]

What is the need for a "Select None'? Maybe 8 is different, but to select none in w7 take only a left click in an empty spot in an Explorer window.

OF course I'm always willing to attribute any misunderstanding to my age and possible dementia.

 

[bamajon1974]

I don't know exactly what "select none" does. Perhaps this operation is more of an exclusive Win8 feature.

I can see what Brink is saying now. The ALT E I keyboard combo works in a folder but not on the desktop and the keyboard strokes don't work in the VB script. This is beyond my limited knowledge of coding. It would be nice to have these features added back into the context menu. Let me know what you find out about it.

 

[Tremarco]

How can i check if this has been removed from the registry,or do i just delete it from the Desktop.

 

[Brink]

Hello Tremarco, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you used OPTION TWO to undo OPTION ONE, then it has been removed.

 

[Tremarco]

If you used OPTION TWO to undo OPTION ONE, then it has been removed.

Thanks for your reply,(Brink).

Yes i done that,its just they both seemed to be the same.

 

[Brink]

Nar, they're different. You can right click on the .reg file and click on "Edit" to see the contents.

I just double checked them, and noticed there was an error in the remove .reg file for the folders. Please download and merge the updated version in the tutorial to see if that helps.

 

[mojo53]

Great fix i really missed that option

 

[Brink]

I'm glad it could help mojo53.