File manager context menus

Context menus
A context menu is the menu of options accessible when you right-click over a file in the operating system's file manager (for example, Explorer in Windows). The following information applies to Windows, but similar principles apply to other operating systems.

Open with
This context menu item allows you to open the file with programs other than the default program associated with that file type. You can add a program to the "Open with" menu and choose if that program will now be the default program to open that file type when you double-click it.

Once a program has been added to the "Open with" menu, it will be listed when you hover over "Open with". If you add Audacity to "Open with", this provides a way to open files with Audacity when it isn't already running, but retain the default double-click action to play the file with Windows Media Player. If a track is already open in Audacity when you execute "Open with", your file will be opened in a new project window. 



Custom context menus
To give more direct context menu access to Audacity, Windows lets you add a custom context menu item of your own for a file type, such as "Edit WAV in Audacity".

To create a custom context menu item in Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP:


 * 1) Click, or  from inside Explorer
 * 2) Click on the
 * 3) Navigate to the file extension for your context menu item, such as WAV, and click "Advanced"
 * 4) In the window that appears, click "New" to add a new context menu item (or to change an existing item, click "Edit")
 * 5) In the "Action" box, type or change the entry as you wish it to appear in the menu (for example, Edit WAV in Audacity)
 * 6) In the "Application used to perform action" box, type the full path to the Audacity executable inside quotes, followed by %1 inside quotes, for example:
 * 7) Click OK, OK and Close.

Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 lack any direct way to either create or edit custom context menu items. You can use free third-party applications such as Default Programs Editor or Context Menu Tuner (for Windows 7 or later) for this purpose.



Opening multiple files from the context menu
"Open with" on Windows only supports opening one file at a time.

You can right-click and open multiple files, or right-click and open any files if Audacity is already running. Each file will open in a new project window.