Edit with IDLE (Python GUI) context menu on Windows 7

Tim picture Tim · Mar 2, 2011 · Viewed 9.9k times · Source

Under Windows XP I have a context menu entry "edit with IDLE" for Python source files. I tried to make this work under Windows 7 (32 bit) as well by setting the corresponding registry entries under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\.py\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\

However without success - the context menu entry does not appear. How do I set a context menu entry for a specific file type in Windows 7?

Answer

richard nixon picture richard nixon · Mar 6, 2012

I spent some time trying to figure this out, and finally got it. I'm running Windows 7, but it should be the same for Windows Vista, Windows XP, etc.

  1. Uninstall Python
  2. Open registry (WINR, then type regedit and hit ENTER)
  3. CTRLF and type .py
  4. Each .py key you come across, delete it.
  5. Do this until it gives you the message: finished searching the registry. Repeat this process but changing the search for the following querys:

    • .pyw
    • python
    • python.exe
    • pythonw.exe
  6. Delete them all

  7. Log off from your user account
  8. Log back on
  9. Re-install Python