ContextShell Settings
ContextShell Settings lets you change how the menu looks and what it shows without editing config files. Open it from the Start menu, or hold Shift and right-click the taskbar, then choose settings.
ContextShell's files are in Program Files, so Windows asks for administrator permission once when you click Save changes. The menu picks up the change the next time you right-click.
Appearance
Pick a theme from the gallery. Each card previews the menu in light or dark mode. Themes marked Light & dark follow the Windows app mode.
| Windows | Solid, follows Windows light and dark mode. The default. |
| Liquid Glass | Translucent frosted glass with a bright edge and a soft sheen, light and dark. |
| Dark, Light | Solid, regardless of the Windows mode. |
| Acrylic | Frosted blur, mostly opaque. |
| Classic glass | Nilesoft Shell's default. Very see-through on busy wallpapers. |
Theme editor
Choose Customize on any theme to open the editor. It has a field for every option in Themes: dropdowns, sliders, color pickers, padding and gradient stops, with a live preview. Any color can have a different value in dark mode.
Built-in themes are never changed. Your version is saved as a new theme in imports\themes\, so updates
can still refresh the originals.
Menu
Turn sections of the menu on or off: tidy up Windows items, File manage, Terminal, Develop, Go To and the taskbar menu. You can also set the submenu delay and tooltips, turn ContextShell off in File Explorer, and restart Explorer.
Updates
When you sign in, ContextShell asks GitHub for the latest release, at most about once a day. If there's a newer version, a small notification offers Update now, Later or Skip this version.
Updating downloads the setup for your PC's architecture and checks it against the release's
SHA256SUMS.txt before running it. Nothing about you or your PC is sent. Turn this off in
Settings > Updates, or install with AUTOUPDATE=0.
Where settings are stored
Everything Settings changes is plain text in the install folder, so you can still edit it by hand:
| shell.nss | Main config. Imports the files below. Menu sections are switched off by commenting their import line. |
| imports\theme.nss | Imports the active theme from imports\themes\. |
| imports\themes\*.nss | Built-in and your own themes. |