docs-desktop/dotnet-desktop-guide/framework/winforms/controls/add-and-remove-menu-items-with-wf-contextmenu-component.md

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Add and Remove Menu Items with ContextMenu Component	03/30/2017	csharp vb cpp	context menus [Windows Forms], removing items ContextMenu component [Windows Forms], adding items shortcut menus [Windows Forms], removing items shortcut menus [Windows Forms], examples context menus [Windows Forms], adding items shortcut menus [Windows Forms], adding items ContextMenu component [Windows Forms], removing items context menus [Windows Forms], examples examples [Windows Forms], context menus	426d1eaf-7fb8-4b0b-8a33-5e8721786ea4

How to: Add and Remove Menu Items with the Windows Forms ContextMenu Component

Explains how to add and remove shortcut menu items in Windows Forms.

The Windows Forms xref:System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu component provides a menu of frequently used commands that are relevant to the selected object. You can add items to the shortcut menu by adding xref:System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem objects to the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Menu.MenuItems%2A collection.

You can remove items from a shortcut menu permanently; however, at run time it may be more appropriate to hide or disable the items instead.

Important

Although xref:System.Windows.Forms.MenuStrip and xref:System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenuStrip replace and add functionality to the xref:System.Windows.Forms.MainMenu and xref:System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu controls of previous versions, xref:System.Windows.Forms.MainMenu and xref:System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu are retained for both backward compatibility and future use if you choose.

To remove items from a shortcut menu

1. Use the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Menu.MenuItemCollection.Remove%2A or xref:System.Windows.Forms.Menu.MenuItemCollection.RemoveAt%2A method of the xref:System.Windows.Forms.Menu.MenuItems%2A collection of the xref:System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu component to remove a particular menu item.

   ' Removes the first item in the shortcut menu.  
   ContextMenu1.MenuItems.RemoveAt(0)  
   ' Removes a particular object from the shortcut menu.  
   ContextMenu1.MenuItems.Remove(mnuItemNew)  
   

   // Removes the first item in the shortcut menu.  
   contextMenu1.MenuItems.RemoveAt(0);  
   // Removes a particular object from the shortcut menu.  
   contextMenu1.MenuItems.Remove(mnuItemNew);  
   

   // Removes the first item in the shortcut menu.  
   contextMenu1->MenuItems->RemoveAt(0);  
   // Removes a particular object from the shortcut menu.  
   contextMenu1->MenuItems->Remove(mnuItemNew);  
   

   -or-

2. Use the Clear method of the MenuItems collection of the xref:System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu component to remove all items from the menu.

   ContextMenu1.MenuItems.Clear()  
   

   contextMenu1.MenuItems.Clear();  
   

   contextMenu1->MenuItems->Clear();  
   

See also

• xref:System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu
• ContextMenu Component
• ContextMenu Component Overview