How To Remove “Encrypted Archive” Context Menu For UPEK Biometrics
Posted on 05 January 2010
A fairly specific title, to be sure.
I recently wiped my laptop and used this opportunity to streamline much of my system as well as to officially upgrade to Windows 7.
One of my favorite features of my laptop – the Dell XPS 1530 – is the built-in UPEK biometrics fingerprint scanner. Unfortunately, the dell-supplied drivers are incompatible with Windows 7, so I was forced to download the latest version directly from the site – which makes it sound like a bad thing but I actually prefer the “retail” version rather than the OEM stuff vendors get, so I was happy.
However, I eventually noticed something that always rather bugged me behind the scenes back on Vista as well with the OEM drivers/software. In the context menu (right-click) of any file, I was presented with two additional buttons: “add to new encrypted archive” and “add to existing encrypted archive”, neither of which I have used or will ever used. And if you’re like me, you prefer no clutter.
There’s an option inside the UPEK program to eliminate the “file safe” from the desktop and “My Computer” windows, but there is no option to remove the context menu. So I did what any responsible person with a complaint about a software product would do – I sent feedback to the developer. And I am quite glad I did, because their support staff gave me a response within just a few hours with the key to removing it. In this case, quite literally a key for the registry (I have no fear of the registry and had removed a number of UPEK-related keys previously, none of which worked – but I put them back).
To remove the FileSafe context menus just delete the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFileSystemObjects\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers\SafearchiveContextMenu
Super easy, once you know where to look.
Thanks, UPEK. I’m very impressed with both your concise response and response time.
