Stop Items being deselected when the Folders Context menu is triggered by a right click

[jinsight]

I want to perform an operation on a folder. I put the command in an item in the Folder Context menu. I select the folder and right click to bring up the Folder Context menu. The very act of right clicking to bring up the Folder Context menu deselects the selected folder so the operation can never take place. How can this deselection be stopped? TIA

[Leo]

Are you using Power Mode? That should not happen with any of the other/normal modes; right-clicking to open a context menu keeps the thing you right-clicked selected while the menu is open.

(What happens after that can depend on what the chosen command does.)

[jinsight]

Here are the commands in a button labelled, Invert the Expanded or Collapsed State of the Selected Folders:

@disablenosel:dirs
@disableif:Set EXPANDABLEFOLDERS=off
GO EXPANDBRANCH toggle

Steps:

1. Select some folders
   

   

2. Right click with the cursor in the location shown in step 1.
   

   

You can see the two folders are no longer selected after only a single right click.

Further evidence of deselection:

The "Invert the Expanded..." button is unavailable since no folder is selected immediately after the right click.

To my way of thinking, at present, either the Folders Context menu is designed to deselect everything, or some setting, that I have missed, is deselecting.

My goal is to use a Folder Context Menu button to effect a folder, and to reduce clicks as much as possible. If that is not possible, I know of many alternatives:

1. Checkboxes
2. Column Header Context Menus
3. Folder Tabs Context Menus
4. All Files and Folders context menus
5. Toolbars

[Leo]

Are you right-clicking the selected folders (shouldn't deselect the folders), or are you right-clicking the background of the file display (will deselect the folders)?

[jinsight]

Here is a sample File Display:

If I right click on System Volume Information, which is selected in the picture, the selected item is not deselected and I get the All Files and Folders Context Menu.

If I right click where you see the cursor over on the right in the picture, the folder is deselected and I get the Folders Context Menu.

From my perspective, if you trigger the Folders Context Menu as I have just described, it is designed to deselect. Is this correct?

[Leo]

Yes, right-clicking the folder background is meant to deselect things.

Context menu items that you want to work on the selected items, not on the whole current folder, should go into the menus you get when you right-click items. You can edit those via Settings > File Types > All Folders (or similar).

[jinsight]

I have recently learned that the Folder Context menu can be activated in two ways:

1. right-clicking the folder background which deselects items, folders and files.
2. right-clicking the status bar which does NOT deselects items

I can not imagine a purpose for this different result when activating the Folder Context Menu. My preference would be to never deselect items.

As it stands now, if you select items and want the Folder Context Menu to impact them, right click on the status bar.