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When a Mac is brand new, the Customize Mac Context Menu or complicated. And it stays that way for the most part. But if you want to add or take away from it, you can only do so in a limited way in macOS.
Unfortunately, the menu in macOS is not as flexible as the menu in Windows. With a little work in the Windows registry, you can get rid of almost any item in a context menu. As an operating system that is more “locked down,” macOS doesn’t make it easy to do that.
If you want to change the context menu like Dropbox does, you’ll have to hack the Finder app itself. We don’t know how to do that, and neither does this post, so we’ll just talk about how to change what shows up in the context menu.
How to Customize Mac Context Menu
Show and hide services
- Click on the Apple menu and open the System Preferences application. You can also open it from /Applications/System Preferences or through Spotlight.
- Open the Keyboard preference pane.
- Click the Shortcuts tab.
- Select Services from the menu pane on the left-hand side.
- This will reveal a list of all available services, sorted into basic categories based on the type of input the services operate upon. As you might expect, you can use the check boxes to toggle the visibility of the connected services.
- Some Applications automatically turn on their own services, and you can use the check boxes to turn them off. Some applications install services but don’t enable them. You might find a few useful services here that you never knew about.
- Open Terminal at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app.
- Paste the following command into Terminal:
- defaults write -g NSServicesMinimumItemCountForContextSubmenu -int 999
- Restart Finder to see your changes with the Terminal command below:
- killall Finder
Edit the “Open With” Menu
- Execute the Terminal command below to rebuild the LaunchServices database
- Relauch Finder with killall Finder. If you don’t see any changes, try restarting Finder again in a minute. It can take a few minutes to rebuild the LaunchServices database.
FAQ
How do I add items to context menu on Mac?
Go to Apple > System Preferences. Select Keyboard, then go to the Shorcuts tab. Click Services, then look for the created Quick Action on the right panel. Click once to select the quick action, then click “Add Shortcut”.
How do you customize the right-click menu on a Mac?
Click the Mouse icon in the preferences panel. Click the Point & Click tab. Click the checkbox next to Secondary click. The default option here is Click on right side, but you can change it to Click on left side if you prefer.
How do I customize my menu bar on Mac?
On your Mac, use Desktop & Dock settings to change the appearance of the Dock, and to select items to show in the menu bar and in Control Center. To change these settings, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)