Customize the Windows Vista Send To Menu
You’ve seen the SendTo folder in action any time you right-click a file and select the Send To folder from the context menu. What you might be unaware of is that you can customize the items in this menu.
Go ahead, right click a file. You should see something that looks like this:
To get to the SendTo folder, you’ll need to open up an Explorer window, and then paste in the following to the address bar.
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
%APPDATA% is an environment variable that actually maps to something like C:\users\<username>\AppData\Roaming.
You should now see a bunch of shortcuts:
Let’s say you wanted to add an item to the Send To menu to open files in Notepad. You could just drag a shortcut to Notepad into this folder, or create a new shortcut. Now you can see the new Notepad item in the menu:
This method should work for any application that allows you to open a file by using a command line argument.
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It’s a lot easier to do (and remember…) the following:
(1) [WindowKey] + [R] : open the execute box
(2) Shell:sendto : open the sendto folder
Blue,
I wasn’t aware of that Shell:sendto trick… thanks for the comment!
THis is a great shortcut but I see a bunch of stuff in my right-click send to then I do when I view this folder. Mostly it includes all my drives that are in use. I really don’t want this. I tried installing TweakVI to help, but couldn’t find this as a setting in this version. Any ideas?
I guess you stumped everyone, Kimber.
Leave it to Microsoft to make things more confusing. I dropped an Excel program shortcut into my “send to” folder so I could send downloaded, delimited txt files straight to Excel, and …go figure…it does not show up in my “right-click send-to menu”.
Thanks Microsoft, you’re the best! I wish all consumer products were as reliable as yours!
Well, on a hunch, I decided to create a shortcut from the Excel.exe file which resides in the Office Program directory. Earlier I had just copied the shortcut from the start menu and dropped that one into the “send to” folder. After deleting the first one and using the one created from the actual exe file, guess what?? It works now! Geeez! That was Easy! I bet everyone will figure that out..(yes, I am being sarcastic)
Why would microsoft create a shortcut to excel for the start menu during an office 07 installation that will not work when dropped into the “send to” folder? Why not create a clean shortcut that actually shows the Target as a folder/file location of the excel exe file rather than just showing “Microsoft Office Small Business 2007″? Or, at least assure that copies of that shortcut from the start menu would work everywhere else in their OS. I could SCREAM! This is just another example of the IDIOCY of microsoft’s development engineers’ thinking.
(..oh, what I would give to go back to the 70’s and snag QDOS before Gates ripped it…) It just hit me, the beginning of Microsoft was founded on “Rip & Burn”. Gates Ripped off QDOS and Tim Patterson got Burned!
How fitting.
Actually it was PCDOS Mark
Thanks SO MUCH for this information! You folks a great!
Best solution of all: Create an item in the Send To list called “Modify This Menu”.
Make it be a batch file that executes “explorer.exe %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo”.
You’ll never need to remember this crap again.
What is it about Microsoft that every version of Windows becomes more complicated and obfuscated? They seem to think that arbitrary churn is the same thing as “innovation”. I had a friend who worked at Microsoft and said it was corporate culture to be rewarded for churn.
Hi Guys!
We’ve added a shortcut to the SendTo menu only for ourselves now. Now, has anyone done it for every user of the computer? I tried doing the trick in the All Users folder, but there’s no AppData\Roaming folder for All Users. Creating the same folder structure doesn’t do it.
Greetz,
Bob
Here’s a trick for guys who need to sort out files such as pictures. I organize my pics by date (ie. I have a folder named yyyymmdd ) and a subfolder called “_Trash”. I need a quick way of sending my files to this folder. So I created a _Trash.cmd batch file in the SendTo folder and the .cmd file looks like this:
move %1 .\_trash
Greetz,
Bob
You can create a shortcut in the Default user path and that will work for new profiles on the machine.
You will need Admin rights so I suggest using the copy technique.
Existing users will have to ba a manual add as far as I can see.
Michael
Built the batch file suggestion for modifying the send to folder. Works Great! Thanks Paul!
Very nice, just what I was looking for!…
@ Blue (et al)
If you’re using Vista, you can even drop the Winkey + R.
oops….accidentally hit Enter and off it went prematurely…..anyway…
On Vista, just hit the Windows key and type shell:sendto
Vista’s Search box suffices as a command line oftentimes
Another trick that adds some functionality to this little gem…
Follow the steps above to get to the Send To folder, then navigate one folder back. You should be in the Windows folder, and several folders (Including Send To) should appear in the explorer pane.
Right click and drag the Send To folder and select “Create Shortcuts Here” on the context menu when you release the mouse. Now just name that shortcut whatever you wish (I call mine “SendTo – Create Menu Item”) and then move it into the Send To folder.
Now, anything you right click and point to the Send To context menu can be directed to this shortcut. Once that’s done, that program will appear on the Send To menu from then on. Useful for things like Notepad, or an image viewer, or any other application where you don’t want to bugger around with changing the default program a given file type should open with, but you either didn’t set a default in the first place, or just want to use a different program now and then.
Cheers
how do you add “new folder” to the send to menu?
Argh!!!!! Thank you, OMG thank you! For 6 months Vista has been frustrating the crap out of me. Send to now just the way I want it.
1. HUGE functionality that seems to be missing now is the ability to create hierarchical SendTo menu items. If I create a folder in the SendTo folder, I cannot add subfolders or shortcuts to that folder to created a nested, organized set of SendTo items. Why did MS remove this functionality? Why?
2. Where is the All Users SendTo? Even when I delete all the default items MS placed into my menu, I need to delete all the stuff it shows for all users (drives, etc.) as well.
I’ve had Vista for all of ten minutes now, and I’m hating it already. I run OS X at home, and it is a superior OS to this junk.
I don’t have the “Send to” comand when I right-click any file… How is that possible? Anyone has any idea on how to recover that?
Linc,
To ad a new folder to the send to menu, from within the send to folder right click and choose: new, shortcut, then use the browse button to browse to the folder you want to add.
sending to SendTo.
send shortcuts to sendTo through sendTo.
to do this you create a shortcut of sendTo in sendTo. shortcut path should be “%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo”
I notice the “Send To” Menu shows more items in the list than whats in the folder, like “DVD RW Drive (F:)”
How does one find this if wanting to remove it from the list?
Wow, this has been driving me crazy not knowing how to do the send to. I just figured they took the feature out of Vista… I sure am glad I found this web site. Thanks You! and Google!
Oh NO you have to learn some new things to use your computer! WAAH! Vista sucks, I love my Mac — whatever.
Quit your damn crying (Brian).
I just picked up a the Samsung i760 smart phone earlier last week and finally got it set up so I can send files and music to the phone through the usb cable. I found this page and thought it would be great if I could add a send to link on the right click menu to the phone’s memory card. Unfortunately I can’t create a shortcut to anything relating to the phone at all. I thought it might be because it’s a removable storage device, but if I put the card into my card reader, or insert a jumpdrive, they show up. Anyone know a work around?
nNn- Um, I’ve been using Windows since 3.11. Perhaps you should stop making assumptions as to what I know and what I need to learn. Vista has issues, especially from the standpoint of usability, performance and efficiency. So many previously-working features are now broken (such as subfolders in the SendoTo), so many unnecessary bells and whistles added that do nothing but slow me down (for example, why do I have to wait 10 seconds for the dialog to pop up to ask if I want to move and replace, move and make a new copy or cancel?).
The last — nay, the only great OS Microsoft managed to put out was Windows 2000. XP was a joke, and Vista isn’t looking much better. (And yes, OS X is superior to any flavor of Windows. Hands down.)
So, back to my original question: has anyone figured out how to use subfolders in the SendTo?
Thanks this is useful
Thanks this has been fantastic, but please can someone tell me what I need to put into the Properties of “Mail Recipient” as I think I have that all wrong, thanks so much
nice trick, very usefull
anyone has any ideas about making a “send to mail recipiant” that will open a browser and use gmail/hotmail/yahoo to send the mail ?
(with outlook functionality, i.e. filling the e-mail automaticaly , and/or attaching any file(s) being sent).
thanks,
The Amir.
I am trying to create a SendTo item that has a similiar function to the “Desktop (create shortcut) option. I want to be able to right click a file and have it send a shortcut of that file to a specific directory. I have written a cmd file that can do the copy, but I cannot figure out how to write a cmd file that creates a shortcut in the destination folder. How would I do this? Thanks!
Thanks for the great tips! The SendTo menu is finally mine again!
Hi,
This is an answer to LJ Marinello: it is working on XP; so please check it on Vista (I only have XP):
- first follow http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310270/en-us which explains how to Add Items to the “Send To” Menu in Windows XP; in point 3 I used “or-
• Point to New on the File menu, and then click Shortcut.
Follow the instructions in the Create Shortcut Wizard.
A new shortcut is created in the SendTo folder, and it is displayed on the Send To menu.”
Then, I found that:
- if you right click on a file (in the Explorer), chose “SendTo” and then select your folder shortcut, a copy of the file is sent to your folder,
- if you left click on a file, then Ctrl+right click, chose “SendTo” and then select your folder shortcut, the file is sent to your folder it is a move on the file),
- if you left click on a file, then Shift+Ctrl+right click, chose “SendTo” and then select your folder shortcut, a shortcut of the file is sent to your folder which is what I understood you wanted to do.
Best regards
I am an insurance adjuster and I have a lot of photos on my computer. They are organized into folders that bear the Insurance Claim number. From time to time a realtor, contractor, etc. will send me some photos, but they will be too large to import into my estimating programs. So, I have to use Picasa to downsize them. However, Picasa scans the whole drive every time I launch it.
Is there a way I can Ctrl+A all the photos in a folder, then right click on the group and then “Send To” Picasa? I have already placed the executable into the Send To folder, but when I try it, nothing happens.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Mike
@Mike
You can change the preferences in Picasa so that it doesn’t scan the entire drive automatically, which might be your best option… I think any way you open it, it’s going to scan the drive.
I’m pretty sure you can simply drag all the images from the folder into Picasa, so if the send to menu doesn’t work, that should.
One thing I miss is the old Win95 powertoy “send to x ( send a file to any folder). Used to use it a lot. Is there a way to add this to the “send to” menu in Vista? Thanks, Pete.
All right! This tweak has worked! I just got into shell:sendto in Run dialog box and created my favourite program shortcuts inside there! Thank you so much!
I have the same question Fred asked back in January. The DVD drive isn’t in the send to folder, yet it shows up in the context menu. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER send a file to my DVD drive and I don’t understand where Microsoft got the idea that people would just willy nilly burn files to their DVD drives from a context menu. The idea of it seems just plain silly!
So my question is, “HOW DO I GET THIS USELESS COMMAND OFF THE CONTEXT MENU, MICROSOFT?”
Pete W: Open Command Prompt Here
1) You have the feature built-in into Vista:
Just hold down SHIFT while right-clicking a folder and the menu item appears
2) I found an even better one:
It’s called “Open Command Prompt Shell Extension” and it’s open source:
http://www.ktechcomputing.com/cmdopen/
it does not only do the old “open command prompt here” trick when right-clicking folders, but also works for the CURRENT folder (I always dreamt of that…) – just right lick into an empty space in the explorer window of the folder.
@Orc
Nice find on #2.
Thx,
btw, it also supports opening command prompts with UNC paths (directories on network shares).
hi guys,
any news on making a working mailto: link that will not open outlook (or windows mail)
but will open a browser and attach the file ?
10x
Amir
@Blue
Opening run isnt even necessary. You can type shell:sendto in the startmenu search and hit enter and it will do the same.
Hello there
Anybody please tell how to SendTo “Create Shortcut” to QuickLaunch like it does to DeskTop normally.
i.e. i want to send links to quick launch only.
Regards
Thanks, this is what i was looking for!
@Brian: So you’ve been using Vista for 10 minutes and you can already pass judgement about OS X being far superior?! Seriously, you’re being a MS hater and/or Mac fanboy.
I’ve been using Windows since 3.1. Vista is not half as bad as some haters claim it is. There are some questionnable design choices, stupid annoyances and some weak implementations but that should be expected of such a huge OS (remember, it has to support lots of things, not the least are legacy software and hardware and entreprise functionalities). Whenever (if ever) OS X can support as many stuff as Windows does, I’ll give it some respect. For now, it’s still playing in the little leagues.
I added a folder to my SendTo, but i noticed that it always copies the files, what i want to do is that when i press sendto>”foldername”, it would cut the object.
this would be handy when i have a folder with music, and folder where i would like to send them. now i have to delete them after.
is this possible?
Johk,
Hold the shift key to SendTo a folder with move instead of copy. For My Documents you have to make your own shortcut in the sendto folder for this to work, the existing one (which is not a shortcut but a drop target) doesn’t work with move.
Hold Ctrl-Shift to send a shortcut instead of a copy.
When you view your personal folder, the SendTo link appears in the tree in the left pane. If you click on it, it denies you access. You can change that so its contents can be VIEWED AND ACCESSED DIRECTLY just like any normal folder. Ie, you can drag-n-drop onto it, cut from it, etc.
In the following, you will be changing a single Security setting for that SendTo link. You’ll need to have Admin rights.
Open your personal folder, find and right-click the SendTo link in the left directory tree. Click Properties. Click the Security tab. Notice that EVERYONE’s special-permission is denied. With the blue-bar illuminating Everyone, click the Advanced button. Again with the blue-bar on Everyone, click the Edit button. Notice the field “List Folder / Read Data” is checkmarked DENY. Change that to ALLOW.
After OKing this change, CANCEL all the earlier windows that are still open underneath this one. (The 1st EDIT window may still appear with the original DENY setting. Just cancel it too.)
NOTE: Do not tinker all the other security settings you encounter or you will be in a sea of trouble.
For more insight on all this, see the article on this site about JUNCTIONS and SYMLINKS. By dropping to the command window in your personal folder (shift-r-click, choose COMMAND), you can type DIR /AH S* to reveal SendTo is a JUNCTION.
Ok, I have a question. what I want to be able to do is send some selected files within a directory to a new folder (also in that directory) without having to create the new folder manually first. Does that make sense? so windows creates the new folder for me and then sends the files there. I tried creating a new folder in the send to folder but it just sends files there rather than creationg a new folder in the currently selected directory.
Using the free TweaklV you can quickly add a Copy to: and Move to: on your right click menu … clicking on either one will allow you to choose where you want to send your file to. This will also copy or move whole folders.
Another thank you from a guy who found this page by googling.
– Tim 1E4AF729D5CEFFD0
Place a shortcut to the SendTo folder within the SendTo folder. Simple.
This is one of the best, most intelligent, most productive threads I’ve ever read. Since the subject matter is arcane uses of the “send to,” I’d say my “most productive” opinion qualifies me as a true geek!
You guys are smart…and M$ cynical. This is my kind of board.
I copped several gems from this thread.
Thanks…everyone.
Special kudos to:
Blue March 15, 2007: Open sendto with “shell:sendto”
Paul June 22, 2007: Open sendto from sendto.
Bob Taylor: July 18, 2007: “send to” a batch file
Orc July 24, 2008: Open command prompt in current dir
Greg Bond: August 24, 2007: type command line into search box
Super special kudos to Mike October 18, 2008: Info on junctions, symlinks, and setting permissions on SendTo. I recently did a big scan of the web for that problem and had a really hard time finding a solution. Even then I didn’t get your great info.
Note to Paul June 22, 2007
Rather than use your command line that specifies the path to sendto, which may, and will, change in E A C H A N D E V E R Y new windows version, use the Shell:sendto suggested by others. That should always work in the future.
Larry Brown
Bob Taylor: July 18, 2007:
Fantastic tip. That obvious tip opens a whole new world for the SendTo menu. But you don’t have to go to so much trouble for your purpose: just drop a shortcut to your “_Trash” folder into the SendTo. Then you can “send to” any file or set of files.
One person asked earlier on about how to create sub-menus, or rather complained that it couldn’t be done. I’ve not tried this yet on Vista – will try to remember to do so soon – but it’s actually REALLY easy to do. I’ve done this on at least one XP machine of mine.
1. Go to the Send To folder
2. In the white/empty space, right-click, and select “New Folder”
3. Name it whatever you want – this will be the submenu title.
4. Now anything you want in that “sub-menu” of the send-to menu, just stick in that folder same as you would in the main “send to” folder.
Problem solved.
I know this is a little late, so that whiny Brian probably won’t read it, but someone else might find this useful.
For all those who just talk about hating Windows and Microsoft, then why don’t you quit using their products?? I mean if they are so bad, then why not use the alternatives: Linux/Mac OSX?
Some things with Windows and various MS products do irk me, but frankly, I think they are the best all around OS, and MS is one of the best all-around software companies, as far as what they produce. Hopefully Windows 7 will make up for the headaches found in Vista. ;0)
@kjv1611
You explain how to do “sub-menus” in SendTo and even bash Windows-haters, however:
1) What you explain does not work in Windows Vista. In Windows Vista when you create a subfolder in the SendTo folder and then select that folder from the SendTo option (this is done by [Right-Click] > [SendTo] > [Your Subfolder in SendTo]) it will not result in showing the items contained in that subfolder as sub-menu items, but in copying the object, which you right-clicked on, to that subfolder. And this is not what people posting above wanted — they wanted sub-menus.
2) You are quick at assuming that people who voice their concerns about and annoyances of Windows Vista are just Windows haters. Yet they are mostly people who have used Windows (and other OS as well) for a very long time and they cannot understand why features, which were good and usefull, have been removed from Windows Vista (and/or from previous versions) and why so many obvious defects in Windows Vista have to be corrected and improved by people who are not professional OS developers — surely Microsoft professional OS developers should have got this right simply by testing the OS for usability.
Please, before leaving any advice, test whether it works the way you explain. Why leave an advice which does not do what you try to explain? Even if it took you an extra day or a week to wait until you hed time to test your own ideas, it is worth waiting before posting here, otherwise the result is as the one above: useless posting. (Frankly, the above posting rather reminds me the Microsoft approach: claim something is great and does the job, when it clearly is not great and mainly it cannot do the job).
I have the same question as Don and Fred, how do you remove the DVD RW Drive or w/e from Send To? That’s the only thing I really wanted to remove besides Fax Recipient, and it’s the true problem, that last thing I want to do is burn via the Send To, there’s too much room for error, a mis-click every now and then.
To: Don, Fred and Xeogin
Sub: Merry Christmas
Windows Vista extends the Send To menu with the drive-letters of the different removable drives installed (Along with mapped network drives).
* Floppy Disk Drive (A:)
* DVD/CD-CW (D:)
To configure whether to display removable drives in the sendto context-menu:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Policies \Explorer]
NoDrivesInSendToMenu = 1 (Default no value)
Addendum:
You may need to add a “Key” (folder) for Explorer in Policies.
The NoDrivesInSendToMenu is also a “DWORD”.
This will not change anything until you either restart explorer or log off/reboot.
I didn’t realize that Vista had changed the method of putting a folder withint he SendTo folder. Sorry for that. But rememember, I stated I had not used Vista.
As to the “MS haters” thing, I’m not talking about people with legitimate discussion, but those that just say, basically, MS stinks – things of that nature. There’s been both here.
If anything, this could prove to be an opportunity for someone to writeup a small app for doing this easily – and someone very well may have by now. If I had the time, I’d do enough research and do that myself, but time is not something I have extra. ;0)
I am glad I read the original article/posting, so I didn’t have to search for the folder when I wanted to – now I’ll remember just where it is. :0)
well, no one ever told the solution for copying problem instead of moving..
the right click + ctrl does not work in vista, it continues copying (annoying!) even if ctrl pressed..
tweakIV is useless as it needs to explore the whole computer to select the target folder…
any ideas??
Is it not easier just to add the copy to move to options on the context menu?
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....lick-menu/
nice method man…
does this work on windows 7 as well…
In vista, when R clicking the “sendto”, it shows up as “gmail this page” or “Blog this page”. I don’t want to gmail the page, but DO want to email the entire open page to/via Windows Mail — just like Outlook in XP. This only sends a link to the page and only sends via gmail. Thanks!
For a simple “Command Prompt Here” send-to functionality, I created a shortcut to cmd.exe with the parameters /k “cd /d” where the /k on cmd.exe indicates to carry out the command and keep the command shell open, and /d on cd indicates to change the current drive as well as the current directory. My actual shortcut target line is %ComSpec% /k “cd /d”
Thanks for the tutorial, and thank you kayden for that registry hack. I noticed that adding a shortcut to the SendTo folder via:
explorer.exe “%APPDATA%/Microsoft/Windows/SendTo”
would cause it to open Documents, because it automatically tacks on a %1, throwing the shortcut off. So I decided to write a very quick batch file that gets the job done, the script is:
@echo off
CLS
SET SENDTO=%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Sendto
start explorer %SENDTO%
addendum:
Place the file in a location you will not delete it from (example – Documents/SendTo Data), add a shortcut and place it in the sendto menu, change the icon and perhaps shrink the cmd size under properties.
Ah!!! Pretty slick!