I have a question about WinRAR's shell extension context menu.

I have both Winzip (v8.1) and WinRAR (v3.51) installed on my system (yeah, don't ask!) and I have the Explorer shell integration for both apps switched on.

So far so good.

But I have noticed that WinRAR also adds a menu to the context menu of the Start Button (which is both irritating and pointless, as you're hardly likely to RAR your Start Menu).

Winzip on the other hand, does not add a context menu to the Start button despite it having the same level of shell integration as WinRAR.

Does anyone know how I can get rid of the WinRAR menu from the Start button context menu only (while leaving other WinRAR context menus in tact)?

It's not a huge deal, but I've been trying to solve this problem for quite some time with no success. I've looked at the registry entries for "Folder" and "Directory" but this was of no help as the registry entries for both apps were present in both places.

So, I still can't determine what Winzip and WinRAR are doing differently (resulting in only WinRAR appearing on the Start button).

It's not a huge deal, but I've been trying to solve this problem for quite some time with no success. I've looked at the registry entries for "Folder" and "Directory" but this was of no help as the registry entries for both apps were present in both places.

So, I still can't determine what Winzip and WinRAR are doing differently (resulting in only WinRAR appearing on the Start button).

I can tell you exactly what they're doing. WinRAR doesn't use the registry to add that context menu, it uses a DLL file (rarext.dll). This is what enables it, for isntance, to add

"Open SFX archive in WinRAR" to EXE files that are ZIP or RAR while not displaying it on ordinary .EXE's - and also how it adds the "Archive" tab to the file properties.

Does anyone know how I can get rid of the WinRAR menu from the Start button context menu only (while leaving other WinRAR context menus in tact)?

Replacing rarext.dll with a new freshly programmed replacement, programmed not to display on the start menu. Or you could try pushing bits under a disassembler/debugger, and dumping (re-assembling) the result. Either way: it would be very difficuilt. You must remember that the start menu is a folder, and is treated as such for context-menu purposes. 7-zip doesn't even have a DLL to go with it, and uses the registry.

I have both Winzip (v8.1) and WinRAR (v3.51) installed on my system (yeah, don't ask!)

hummmm... I'd like to know why

Thanks very much for the detailed response Plamdi.

So would you say that Winzip is doing something to not add a context menu to the Start button, or is WinRAR specifically doing something to make sure that it does add a context menu to the Start button?

I think Winzip's way makes far more sense, and I can't believe that RARLab would have spent time hard-coding this non-sensical addition into a DLL.

Thanks very much for the detailed response Plamdi.

So would you say that Winzip is doing something to not add a context menu to the Start button, or is WinRAR specifically doing something to make sure that it does add a context menu to the Start button?

I think Winzip's way makes far more sense, and I can't believe that RARLab would have spent time hard-coding this non-sensical addition into a DLL.

WinZIP must have gone out-of-the-way to avoid the start menu context menu, as it's counted as a folder-context menu.

Ah, that makes sense.

It all seems so obvious (now that you have fully expained how and why they both behave the way they do).

Thanks again