Clif Notes Freeware and Website Reviews
[Back to the Review Archive]  [See the newsletter archives]

 System ShellExView - view all Windows shell extensions
Website - ScreenShot - Download - Freeware
The Windows Explorer shell has many features that you can customize and add on. Most of the features are implemented by "Shell Extensions". Most of us don't care what they are as long as they work. Some day you might notice extra items in your right click menu or something that was there and isn't there now. This is a case where ShellExView may help out. ShellExView will list all the shell extensions on your PC and give you loads of information about each one. Be very cautious about removing shell extensions. If you happen to remove the wrong ones, you can easily cripple your PC. It's safer to disable shell extensions and see the results. Then you can remove them if you wish.

Quote from the website - Shell Extensions are in-process COM objects which extends the abilities of Windows operating system. Most shell extensions are automatically installed by the operating system, but there are also many other applications that install additional shell extension components. For example: If you install WinZip on your computer, you'll see a special WinZip menu when you right-click on a Zip file. This menu is created by adding a shell extension to the system.
The ShellExView utility displays the details of shell extensions installed on your computer, and allows you to easily disable and enable each shell extension.
 Clif Notes Freeware and Website Reviews