Missing WinRAR Context Menu Item

I have been fiddling with context menu entries in Win11 24H2, using ShellEx and ShellMenuView and running some of Brink's registry tweaks.

Somehow, I seem to have blocked or deleted a right-click entry for WinRAR. The specific entry is the one that is supposed to appear in the Everything file finder.

On another (more plain-vanilla) Win11 machine, in Everything, I search for .wav files. I select a handful of .wavs, right-click on them, and see an option for WinRAR. But on this tweaked machine, after taking those same steps, that option does not appear.

The problem does not appear in File Explorer. If I select and right-click on a handful of .wavs in File Explorer, the WinRAR option appears as expected.

I encounter similar behavior in some other places. For instance, I use IrfanView > menu > File > Open > right-click on a .wav file. There, as in Everything, I see no WinRAR option. But I do see a WinRAR option when I take those same steps on the other (vanilla) Win11 machine.

I have been careful not to turn off anything that appears directly related to Everything or WinRAR. Uninstalling and reinstalling those two programs has not restored the missing context menu option. Reviews of ShellEx and ShellMenuView do not seem to indicate that I have disabled anything relevant.

Your post doesn't give any indication about what you've specifically done or deleted to cause your problem.

If it was me, I'd restore a system image and not fiddle around too much with your context menus. If you do decide to fiddle around with your context menus, make a system image before you do.

Yes. That is my question. What have I done or deleted to cause this problem? Because as far as I can tell, there hasn't been any such thing.

I don't know why a moderator moved this question to this forum. It's not about any particular app. For example, the problem is *not* due to tweaks performed on IrfanView, WinRAR, or Everything.

I can't give you the specific thing you've done to cause it, but if uninstalling and reinstalling the affected programs doesn't fix the problem, then you've most likely removed or altered a Windows component. You'll probably find context menu problems with other programs in the future. That's why I would opt for a system image restoration. At the very least, try a System Restore.

I have now reinstalled Windows 11. The WinRAR option disappears from the Everything file list before I tweak anything. The WinRAR option is still there in Windows File Explorer.

So the problem appears to arise from some interaction between Everything and WinRAR.

While my previous remarks cited .wav files and IrfanView, the problem is not limited to those. I have now tried with Everything listings of other filetypes (e.g., .txt, .doc, .mp4). The result is the same.

Thus, the problem does not appear specific to any filetype. It also does not seem to vary according to the number of files selected in Everything.

A reply by email from WinRAR's developer:

You can try to enable "Legacy context menus" option in WinRAR "Settings/Integration". It will allow WinRAR to provide IContextMenu interface additionally to IExplorerCommand. While IExplorerCommand is needed for "new" Windows 11 Explorer context menu, IContextMenu is more likely to be utilized by third party software.

Note that enabling "Legacy context menus" option might lead to duplicated WinRAR entries in Windows 11 Explorer "old" context menu. Unfortunately I do not have a solution for duplicated WinRAR entries issue.

Click to expand...

Trying that, I went into WinRAR > menu > Options > Settings > Integration tab > check the box for Legacy context menus > OK. Then I opened Everything > run a search > select a handful of files from the search results > right-click on those. The WinRAR context menu option was there. So that worked.

I did not see any duplicated entries in that particular context menu. Back in Windows File Explorer, however, when I right-clicked on a selection of files, I did see a duplicated WinRAR entry. Nothing else seemed to be duplicated. For my purposes, at the moment, this looked like an acceptable fix. Just in case, I posted a related note in an Everything forum.

raywood said:

Uninstalling and reinstalling those two programs has not restored the missing context menu option. Reviews of ShellEx and ShellMenuView do not seem to indicate that I have disabled anything relevant.

Click to expand...

how did you uninstall it though? if the standard method, try using revo portable and uninstall it and get all leftover reg entries and folders/files after the uninstall. then reboot and reinstall winrar. i'd be willing to bet its a reg entry causing the issue and the standard uninstall process most likely leaves behind some keys