The ShellExView utility displays the details of shell extensions installed on your computer, and allows you to easily disable and enable each shell extension.

ShellExView can be used for solving context-menu problems in Explorer environment. For more information, read the following article: Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers

Date Version Description

10/06/2019 2.01 Fixed bug: ShellExView crashed on some systems.

07/03/2019 2.00 Fixed to detect properly the filename of .NET extensions.

30/08/2015 1.97 Fixed the 'Restart Explorer' option to work properly on Windows 10.

07/08/2015 1.96 Fixed bug: When the 'Hide All Microsoft Extensions' option was turned on, ShellExView didn't display it as checked.

Fixed bug: ShellExView failed to detect some shell extensions.

02/07/2015 1.95 Added 'Hide All Microsoft Extensions' option.

Added 'Missing File' column (Displays 'Yes' if the shell extension file is missing).

26/05/2014 1.90 Added 'Thumbnail Handler' and 'Preview Handler' shell extensions that ShellExView failed to locate in previous versions.

05/09/2013 1.86 Fixed bug: ShellExView failed to extract the digital signatures on some systems.

19/08/2013 1.85 Fixed issue: Microsoft shell extensions displayed as non-Microsoft if the company name was 'Microsoft Corp.'

Added 'Digital Signature' column, which displays the signer name if the shell extension dll is signed with a digital signature. This column is active only when 'Read Digital Signatures' option (Under the Options menu) is turned on. (by default it's turned off)

Added 'Auto Size Columns+Headers' option.

13/06/2013 1.81 Added secondary sorting: When clicking the column headers of 'Type', 'Company', and other columns , the list is sorted by the selected column first, and then by the 'Extension Name' column.

31/05/2013 1.80 Added 'Show 32-bit Shell Extensions' option, under the Options menu, available only on 64-bit systems. When it's turned on, ShellExView loads the 32-bit instance of installed shell extensions. (Similar to the /wow64 command-line option)

25/09/2012 1.76 Fixed issue: The properties window opened in the wrong monitor, on multi-monitors system.

09/09/2012 1.75 Added 'Restart Explorer' (Ctrl+E) option, under the Options menu, which allows you to easily restart Windows Explorer if the disabling/enabling a shell extension doesn't affect Explorer immediately (Very useful for Windows 7/2008/Vista).

19/03/2012 1.70 Added 'Put Icon On Tray' option.

24/10/2011 1.68 Added shell extensions under LibraryFolder\Background key.

03/10/2011 1.67 You can now drag one or more files from the window of ShellExView into Explorer window or other application.

18/05/2011 1.66 Added 'Show Time In GMT' option.

10/03/2011 1.65 Added support for 3 types of shell extensions: Disk Cleanup Handlers, Icon Overlay Handlers, and Property Handlers

26/02/2011 1.60 Added /enable and /disable command-line options, which allow you to disable/enable shell extensions automatically from command-line without displaying any user interface, by specifying the CLSID of the shell extension.

14/02/2011 1.55 Fixed bug: ShellExView failed to detect some shell extensions (When the CLSID was specified as Registry key instead of Registry value).

Added .NET detection - When there is a .NET extension, ShellExView now detect the real shell extension dll instead of displaying the .NET core dll (mscoree.dll)

Added .NET column, which displays 'Yes' if the shell extension was created in .NET

21/11/2010 1.50 Added 'Google Search - Filename' and 'Google Search - Extension Name' options, which allows you to easily search for information about the selected shell extension in Google.

20/09/2010 1.48 Added 'Add Header Line To CSV/Tab-Delimited File' option. When this option is turned on, the column names are added as the first line when you export to csv or tab-delimited file.

18/05/2010 1.47 Fixed ShellExView x64 to require to run as admin under Windows 7/Vista, like the 32-bit version.

03/05/2010 1.46 Added 'Preview Handler' shell extensions.

07/11/2009 1.45 On x64 systems, ShellExView now always shows the shell extensions for x64 applications, even on the 32-bit version of ShellExView. If you want to get the shell extensions list for 32-bit applications, use ShellExView with /wow64 command-line option.

Added /remote command-line option, which allows you to view/enable/disable shell extensions in a remote computer on your network.

29/08/2009 1.41 Changed the definition of 'Suspicious Shell Extensions' - In previous versions, Every shell extension with read-only attribute marked as Suspicious, which confused some users, because there are many legitimated shell extensions that set a read-only attribute, probably to protect them from delete by the user. However, if a shell extension has an hidden attribute, it'll still be marked as suspicious.

22/08/2009 1.40 Added option to submit a report about a shell extension that you disabled to http://shellfix.nirsoft.net.

05/04/2009 1.37 ShellExView now displays a special warning when trying to disable a shell extension of shell32.dll

07/01/2009 1.36 Fixed bug: ShellExView crashed when using it with the save command-line options.

24/11/2008 1.35 Added support for using ShellExView with external drive (by using /external command-line option).

10/11/2008 1.30 Added 'Filter By Extension Type' option - Allows you to select which type of shell extensions you want to view.

24/10/2008 1.25 New restriction: ShellExView won't allow you to disable at once more than 15 shell extensions created by Microsoft. The reason for this restriction is that recently there were a few cases of people that disabled most of their shell extensions, including system extensions that installed as a part of the operating system, and then found themselves with a system that cannot boot properly.

02/10/2008 1.24 Fixed bug: Exception window appeared when starting ShellExView in some systems.

08/07/2008 1.23 Fixed bug: The dates displayed in system locale format, instead of user locale.

14/05/2008 1.22 Added shell extensions under "My Network Places", "Entire Network", and "Remote Computer" Registry keys.

Added 3 columns: "My Network Places", "Entire Network", and "Remote Computer" (which tells you whether the Shell Extension was added into these folders)

03/05/2008 1.21 Fixed bug: The main window lost the focus when the user switched to another application and then returned back to ShellExView.

24/04/2008 1.20 Added support for saving as comma-delimited text file

22/11/2007 1.19 Under Vista, ShellExView now requires to run as administrator.

21/09/2007 1.18 Configuration of ShellExView is now saved to a cfg file instead of the Registry.

04/08/2007 1.17 Added support for properly enabling/disabling shell extensions under Windows Vista. (The disabled shell extensions are added to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked' key in the Registry)

Added x64 version (as a separated download) for using under Windows Vista x64.

Added shell extensions under SystemFileAssociations key.

16/02/2007 1.16 Fixed bug: When a filename was enclosed with quotes, ShellExView failed to display the properties of the file.

12/08/2006 1.15 A tooltip is displayed when a string in a column is longer than the column length.

30/12/2005 1.14 Added shell extensions under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background

15/07/2005 1.13 New columns: File Attributes and File Size.

New option: Mark Suspicious Shell Extensions - mark in red color shell extensions with unusual file attribues (hidden attribue) or with unusual file extensions.

21/06/2005 1.12 New shell extension types: InfoTip Handler, Shell Link, Structure Storage, MetaData.

Multiple shell extensions with the same CLSID are now displayed in separated entries.

Added support for Windows XP style.

27/02/2005 1.11 New shell extension type: URL Search Hook.

Open the CLSID key of the shell extension in RegEdit.

New column: File Extensions.

25/11/2004 1.10 New columns: File Created Time, CLSID Modified Time, Microsoft.

New extensions types: Browser Helper Object, IE Toolbar, Explorer Bar, IE Extensions.

Choose columns dialog-box.

Auto-Size columns.

Find dialog-box.

HTML Reports.

Save as XML file.

Mark disabled items in gray color.

Mark non-Microsoft extensions in pink color.

Ability to translate to other languages.

23/08/2003 1.01 Critical bug from previous version (1.00) was fixed: In some circumstances, after disabling a shell extension and then enabling it again, the shell extension continued to be disabled, even if ShellExView show that it's enabled.