Nilesoft Shell GitHub

Installation


Tip: To use Shell for your account only, without administrator rights, register an extracted (portable) copy with shell -register -user -restart and create your own configuration in %APPDATA%\Nilesoft\Shell with shell -config:init. See Command line.

Shell can be installed in the following ways:


Please also note the following reference sections:


Download

These links always point to the newest release of Nilesoft Shell Pro:

The files are not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may ask for confirmation (More info → Run anyway).


Installer version
Install

Download setup-x64.msi (or the ARM64/x86 one), run it and approve the administrator prompt. It installs to C:\Program Files\Nilesoft Shell\, registers Shell for all users with the Windows 11 classic menu, restarts File Explorer and adds Nilesoft Shell Pro to the Start menu.

Installing a newer version of Nilesoft Shell Pro over an older one upgrades it in place and keeps your shell.nss. The original Nilesoft Shell must be uninstalled first (see the warning at the top).

Uninstall

Open Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find Nilesoft Shell Pro and choose Uninstall. Shell is unregistered and File Explorer restarts. Your per-user configuration in %APPDATA%\Nilesoft\Shell is left in place.


Portable version
Install

Download NilesoftShellPro-x64-portable.zip and extract it to a folder you own, for example %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\NilesoftShellPro. Run NilesoftShellPro.exe: its first-run setup creates your configuration and registers Shell for your account, with no administrator rights. Or run these yourself from that folder:

Command Prompt
shell -config:init
shell -register -user -treat -restart

To register for all users instead, run shell -register -treat -restart from an elevated command prompt.

For further details, see the chapter Command-Line Help below.

Uninstall

From the folder you extracted the program to, run (no administrator rights needed for a per-user registration; use an elevated prompt and leave out -user if you registered it for all users):

Command Prompt
shell -unregister -user -restart

Then delete the folder.


Tip: Close all instances of Windows File Explorer before uninstalling to avoid needing a reboot after it (Shell) has been uninstalled.

For further details see the chapter Command-Line Help below.


Windows Package Manager

Windows Package Manager is available from Windows 10 version 1809.

Install

Open a command prompt, and run

COMMAND PROMPT
winget install Nilesoft.Shell

The program will be installed to C:\Program Files\Nilesoft Shell\.

Uninstall

Open a command prompt, and run

COMMAND PROMPT
winget uninstall Nilesoft.Shell

Scoop

Scoop can be installed following the instructions at scoop.sh.

Install

Open a command prompt, and run

COMMAND PROMPT
scoop install nilesoft-shell

The program will be installed to %USERPROFILE%\scoop\apps\nilesoft-shell\current\.

Tip: If you get the error Couldn't find manifest for 'nilesoft-shell', please run first
COMMAND PROMPT
scoop bucket add extras

Open an elevated command prompt (or use gsudo), and run

Administrator: Command Prompt
shell -register -restart

For further details see the chapter Command-Line Help below.

Uninstall

Open an elevated command prompt (or use gsudo), and run

Administrator: Command Prompt
shell -unregister -restart

Then run

Administrator: Command Prompt
scoop uninstall nilesoft-shell

Chocolatey

Chocolatey can be installed following the instructions at chocolatey.org.

Install
Notice: Until the package has been moderated, you need to add the specific version string to the installer, adding e.g.
COMMAND PROMPT
choco install nilesoft.shell --version=1.8.1
Please find the latest published version at Chocolatey's Version History and use the latest version number (replacing 1.8.1).

Open an elevated command prompt (or use gsudo), and run

COMMAND PROMPT
choco install nilesoft.shell

The program will be installed to C:\Program Files\Nilesoft Shell\.

Uninstall

Open an elevated command prompt (or use gsudo), and run

COMMAND PROMPT
choco uninstall nilesoft.shell

Command-Line Help

shell -[options]

Options
-register (-r) Registering.
-unregister (-u) Unregistering.
-user With -register or -unregister: register for the current user only (HKCU\Software\Classes). Needs no administrator rights. The icon overlay is machine-wide only and is skipped. With -treat on Windows 11 the redirect is written under HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}. If Shell is also registered for all users, the per-user registration takes precedence for that user.
-restart Restart Windows Explorer for the current session. Needs no administrator rights; other users' Explorer processes are not touched.
-treat Disable Windows 11 context menu.
-silent (-s) Prevents displaying messages.
-config:init [-force] Copy shell.nss and the imports folder from the install folder to %APPDATA%\Nilesoft\Shell. Existing files are kept unless -force is given. Needs no administrator rights.
-config:reset Copy everything in %APPDATA%\Nilesoft\Shell to a backup-<timestamp> folder inside it, then copy the default shell.nss and imports again, overwriting. Other files are left in place. Nothing is overwritten if the backup fails.
-config:path Print the full path of the configuration file in use.
-config:check <file> Parse <file> and its imports (resolved relative to the importing file) with the same parser Explorer uses, without affecting the running menu, and print {"ok":bool,"root":"...","errors":[...],"warnings":[...]}, each entry {"file","line","column","message"}. Errors stop the configuration from loading; warnings (such as a missing import) do not. Exit code 0 if it loads, 1 if not, 2 if no file is given. Needs no administrator rights.
-status Print a JSON object describing the installation: version, registration mode (none, user, machine or both) and the DLL each registration points at, the Windows 11 menu redirect state, the configuration file in use and where it was found (registry, appdata or install), and the per-user configuration folder. Only reads; needs no administrator rights. Exit code 0 (1 if the output could not be written).
-out:<file> Write the output of the -config:* and -status commands to a file (UTF-8) instead of standard output. Without it, output goes to standard output when that is a pipe or a file, otherwise to the console the command was started from.
-? Display this help message.
Use the following keys to enable/disable

These keys are used when you press right-click or press Shift+F10 keys

CTRL To enable and reload the configuration file shell.nss
WIN To make priority to the modern context menu for Windows 11
CTRL+WIN To turn Shell off in File Explorer until Explorer restarts
RIGHT-CLICK+LEFT-CLICK To reload the configuration file shell.nss

The right-click made with CTRL+WIN shows the plain Windows classic menu. After that, File Explorer shows the Windows menus: the Windows 11 menu on Windows 11, the classic menu on Windows 10. On Windows 10, right-click with CTRL held to turn Shell back on. On Windows 11 that does not work, because the Windows 11 menu never reaches Shell while it is off. Restart File Explorer instead, for example with shell -restart, or sign out and back in.