Remove ATI Catalyst Control Center from the Desktop Right-Click Menu
Have you ever wondered how to remove the “Catalyst(TM) Control Center” item from the desktop context menu? After writing yesterday about how to remove the NVIDIA Control Panel, a number of readers wrote in asking how to get rid of the ATI version.
We can look in the same place in the registry in order to quickly remove the item, or we can use the same utility we used yesterday to completely disable the shell extension.
Note: This method works the same for XP, Vista, and Windows 7.
In case you aren’t sure what we’re talking about, here’s the menu item we’re looking to remove:
Remove the Registry Hack Way
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\ACE
Double-click on the (Default) value in the right-hand side, and then add some dashes in front of the value to disable it. You should be able to right-click on the desktop and see that the item is removed.
If you would prefer, you can simply get rid of this key, but I would do right-click / export the key out to a file for backup purposes before deleting it.
Completely Disable the Shell Extension
If you don’t want that shell extension loading at all, you can use the awesome Nirsoft ShellExView application to just completely disable the extension and prevent it from running.
Note: make sure to launch ShellExView by right-clicking and choosing Run as Administrator if you are using Vista. This doesn’t seem to work for Windows 7, but the registry hack above will work perfectly fine.
Find the “SimpleShlExt Class” item with the description “ACE Context Menu” in the list, and click the Disable button.
If you aren’t sure it’s the right one, double-click on it to see the details, and verify that it’s similar to this one (although your version could be different)
At this point, you should have a nice clean desktop context menu:
Does this menu item annoy you as much as it does me?
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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is a wonderful tip.
Yes, applications that add context menu items without asking annoy me.
Props and kudos on your work.
wow, my request has been granted..
Having the Catalyst in my tray was good enough anyways.
Thank you
Hey can u explain the same thing for XP…?
Thank you for the tip.
Whats the point of having a start menu item and a context menu item? Why disable it? Just delete it from the context menu!
Nice tip, I was also able to get rid of the TortoiseSVN menus from there too. Thanks.
Matt…if you wanted to get rid of the TortoiseSVN menus, why didn’t you just uninstall it? What good does TortoiseSVN do if the menus are disabled?
Thank you for this! You just helped me clean up my right click context menu and made me a happy camper!
And a big f*ck you to ATI and all the others who add their rubbish without asking user permission first and without providing an easy way to remove. Shame!
Thank you so much! Recently changed graphicscard to a nvidia 8800 and do not want to format yet… You made my day!
Thank you x2
And a big f*ck you to ATI and all the others who add their rubbish without asking user permission first and without providing an easy way to remove x2
Thank you so much. This has irritated me for ages.
ATI (and any others out there who think it’s a good idea to deface users systems without first asking their permission), think again. I will never use or buy your products again until you provide a way to refuse or remove this junk.
Is there any use to having ATI Catalysy Control Center on my PC?
Dude, awesoooome. Thank you very much
I have saved that utility and the link to it for later reference. I had a ton of Context Menu integrations on my home PC (well, still have actually) and some are very hard to get rid of. This should make it easy!
w00t.
Thank you!
I reinsttalled Vista and Catalyst Control Center came up to the context menu.
I couldn’t remenber how I had revomed that annoying one, and looked for Japanese sites,
but I couldn’t find usefull information, and finally got to this page.
Thank you again.
Nice one, I love my ati products but I hate all that extra crap. Worked for me running XP SP2
Thanks a lot.. that thing was bugging me to death.
The ATI packaging “team”, most likely the newest intern on staff, have absolutely no idea of what they are doing. From the way they spray stuff all over the place they must all have a street background in graffiti.
Ever look in the directory where *everything* is installed? Multiple copies of the same files in several directories, huge long, impossible to type from the command line, file names. Left over unused garbage that was on the packager’s hard drive. Debugging code. And, all 30 language packages. This last one is the reason you get to pick a language in CCC.exe. They are not being nice. They are too lazy to package up multiple language versions.
Thank you! This was the first result that came up in my search to fix this and it worked perfectly. Thanks again!
Thanks a million! What a bunch of duckheads, putting that in the Explorer right click menu! Good riddance to bad rubbish!
Can anybody tell me why I need the CCC anyway? I am not into games, videos, music (profoundly deaf!) or anything like that. It started throwing up error messages so I uninstalled all ATI programs and the machine seems to be going like a train now! Is this another way to get rid of those irritating links “sprayed” everywhere?
Muhcas Gracias eres un genio, thanks you are genious
Why do I need the ATI Catlyst Control Center. I feel like I’m not in control of my computer. It just adds things and does what it wants without my permission. Why, and it’s just getting worse and worse, and my puter slower and slower. I have Max Resistry, Trend, and Spy Sweeper, so why do I need this ATI thing?
ThankYou very much!!!
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Terri, we need it for games
Thanks! In my case, the thingy was SimpleShlExt Class, description: AMD Desktop Control Panel, even easir to find.
Bad one for ATI, adding things that no one want or asked for…
I’m running Vista Home Premium 64 bit, and I can’t seem to find these processes?
i agree with zedd, i have the same version, and i cant find it also
Try this on vista64:
regsvr32 /u “%ProgramFiles(x86)%\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static\atiacm64.dll”
Yo thx a bunch that thing WAS SO ANNOYING xD
Alex
What do you do with the line you added? I have vista and am not coming up with these processes either.