Customizing the Send To Menu

In his work, Steve deals with a lot of text files on client's PCs that do not have traditional file types as part of their names (for example, textfile.002). He doesn't want to create an association for these types as there are many other ".002" files that are not text files.

The solution that has worked for Steve in the past in the past is to create a shortcut to Notepad in the user's "SendTo" folder. That way, he can just right-click on any file and choose Notepad from the "Send To" menu.

Now that Steve is starting to work with machines that have Window 7 and Windows 8 installed on them, he can't seem to find the equivalent to the users' SendTo folder. So he wonders if there is a way he can accomplish this task.

Yes, you can still create this great time-saver. In fact, you can customize the Send To menu rather easily. If you want to add Notepad to the menu (so you can send information directly to Notepad), you could follow these steps if you are using Windows 7:

1. Open an Explorer window. (An easy way to do this is to press Win+E.)
2. In the address bar enter "shell:sendto" (without the quote marks). Windows displays all your Send To shortcuts.
3. With the Explorer window still open, click Start | All Programs | Accessories. You should be able to see the Notepad accessory listed.
4. Hold down the Alt key as you click and drag the Notepad accessory to the Explorer window. When you release the mouse button, Windows creates a shortcut to the Notepad accessory.
5. Close the Explorer window.

The steps are different in Windows 8:

1. Open an Explorer window. (An easy way to do this is to press Win+E.)
2. In the address bar enter "shell:sendto" (without the quote marks). Windows displays all your Send To shortcuts.
3. Press Win+C to display the Charms bar at the right side of the screen.
4. Click the Search option on the Charms bar. Windows displays the Search box.
5. Type "notepad", without the quote marks. Windows should show you a few options that include the word "notepad" in them.
6. Right-click on the Notepad app option (in the search results) and choose Open File Location. Windows opens a second Explorer window that contains a shortcut to the Notepad app.
7. Hold down the Ctrl key as you drag the Notepad shortcut from the second Explorer window (displayed in step 6) to the first Explorer window (displayed in step 1). This copies the shortcut from one window to the other.
8. Close the Explorer windows.

That's it; the Notepad option is now added to the Send To menu, and you can easily send information to the accessory.

 This tip (11403) applies to Windows 7 and 8.