Add Command Prompt icon to Windows XP right-click menu

So maybe some of you want to be able to add a choice to use the Command Prompt to Windows XP's right-click menu. And maybe some of you don't.
Simply. If you do, then this tutorial will or can tell you how.

A hidden functionality in Windows allows you to right click on a directory, and select "Command Prompt Here" from the menu.

Here's the registry key to get this working. But make sure you back up your registry just in case. Here's the step-by-step method, but you can skip down to the bottom for the alternate registry file.

Step-by-Step Method
Method 1

1. Click -- Start > Run and then type in regedit.exe. Then find your way to the following registry key.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

2. Once you've found it, right-click and choose New Key.

3. Name the key "CommandPrompt" without the double quotes.

4. Right click on the new Command key and select New key. Name the new key Command as well, and then double-click the default value of that key. Set the text of that key to this:

cmd.exe /k cd %1

Once you've gotten yourself up to this point, this is what it should look like.




Now, when you right click on a directory you should see this:




So by clicking on this, it should bring up a prompt looking like this:



Alternate Method
Method 2

1. Create a text file and call it *anything.you.want*.txt and insert the following text inside it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\CommandPrompt]
@="Command Prompt:"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\CommandPrompt\Command]
@="cmd.exe /k cd %1″

2. Double-click the text file and the Method 1 tutorial will be done automatically.
(This would be the quickest option out of the three)

Another Alternate Method
Method 3

You can download the Powertoy from Microsoft which does all of this for you so you don't have to mess around much.




Whichever way, you still need some fingers, hands, a computer, and some brains though.

I would recommend you copy and paste the text from Method 2 (the text file method) as it doesn't involve actually Registry Editing which if you mess up, you will really regret. Although, the safest option would be Method 3 (download Powertoy). It's all up to you!