Notes, tasks, passwords, journal, files, calendar, contacts and bookmarks, with mood and medication tracking. Encrypted on your device. Open source, no ads, no trackers. Free forever; Pro is a one-time purchase.
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Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.
Which is more popular?
Based on our record, Bear
seems to be a lot more popular than ShellNewHandler.
While we know about 60 links to Bear,
we've tracked only 2 mentions of ShellNewHandler.
social mentions
60 vs 2
Note Taking popularity
100% vs 0%
Base details
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
User-Friendly Interface Bear features a clean, intuitive design that makes it easy for users to navigate and manage their notes, even for those who are not tech-savvy.
Markdown Support Bear supports Markdown, allowing users to format their text efficiently and maintain consistency across documents with simple syntax.
Cross-Device Synchronization Bear offers seamless synchronization across iOS and macOS devices, ensuring your notes are always up-to-date regardless of which device you use.
Powerful Tagging System The app includes an advanced tagging mechanism, enabling users to easily categorize and find their notes through hashtags.
Focus Mode Bear offers a Focus Mode that hides distractions, allowing users to concentrate entirely on their writing.
Export Options Users can export their notes in various formats including PDF, HTML, DOCX, and others, making it versatile for different use cases.
Possible disadvantages
Apple Ecosystem Only Bear is only available on iOS and macOS devices, limiting its accessibility to users who are not within the Apple ecosystem.
Limited Free Version The free version of Bear comes with restricted features, requiring users to subscribe to Bear Pro for full functionality, including cross-device sync and export options.
No Collaboration Features Bear does not support real-time collaboration, which can be a significant drawback for users looking to work on notes with others simultaneously.
Storage Constraints Bear stores data locally and does not offer cloud storage, which could be a limitation for users with multiple devices or those who need extensive storage capabilities.
Learning Curve for Markdown While Markdown is powerful, it can be challenging for new users to learn and use effectively, potentially slowing down the note-taking process initially.
No features have been listed yet.
Analysis
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.
BearShellNewHandler
Overall verdict
Bear is an excellent note-taking app for individuals who value a minimalist design coupled with powerful features. It's especially appealing to users who need a reliable, aesthetically pleasing application for organizing and capturing notes.
Why this product is good
Bear is highly praised for its clean and intuitive interface, allowing users to focus on writing without distractions. It supports Markdown, making it easy to format notes, and offers seamless organization with tags and nested tags. Additionally, Bear provides robust search functionality, cross-note linking, and impressive export options to various formats. It's also known for its synchronization capabilities across Apple devices, making it convenient for users in the Apple ecosystem.
Recommended for
Writers
Students
Apple device users
Markdown enthusiasts
People who prefer a focused writing environment
Overall verdict
ShellNewHandler is a niche, lightweight utility hosted on SourceForge designed to give users more control over the Windows 'New' context menu (the ShellNew menu). It can be considered good for its specific narrow use case, but it is an older, minimally maintained tool that may not suit all users, especially those on modern Windows versions.
Why this product is good
Provides direct control over customizing the Windows right-click 'New' menu, allowing users to add or remove file type entries
Lightweight and free, without bundled bloatware typical of some other free utilities
Simple and focused in scope, making it easy to understand for its specific purpose
Open distribution via SourceForge allows transparency and no-cost access
Recommended for
Power users who want to declutter or customize the Windows New context menu
IT administrators managing standardized desktop environments across multiple machines
Users comfortable with older utility-style tools and Windows registry-related tweaks
Not recommended for casual users seeking modern, actively supported software with regular updates
Category popularity
How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.
When Bear users talk about it, the common theme you will hear across all people is Bear’s minimalistic UI. Bear comes with no bells and whistles save for a few formatting options. Bear users can link their notes to...
Bear Markdown Notes is an app for macOS and iOS devices with an excellent interface and selection of features that could make me regret my faithfulness to Android. Even the free version offers a number of tweaks — for...
With Bear Pro, you can encrypt individual notes to keep them safe and lock Bear to keep away nosy friends, family, and coworkers. Set a unique password that only you know, use Face/Touch ID to open your notes, and...
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.
Bear60 mentionsShellNewHandler2 mentions
Bear turns 10, and it still feels like day one
Agreed! You’d have to navigate to the top level on the site… “Bear is a beautiful, powerfully simple Markdown note taking app to capture, write, and organize your life.” https://bear.app/.
- Source: Hacker News
/
3 days ago
Make Your Vault Look and Read the Way You Want
What I liked was Bear. Its dark sidebar, the calm light page next to it, the way nothing competes with the text. So my example is a Bear-style vault with a dark blue rail in the Tokyo Night palette.
- Source: dev.to
/
about 1 month ago
I recently got libreoffice, but now the new option in right click looks like a mess. Can someone help me get rid of them please?
Use Shell New Handler. Run the portable app and simply untick the items you don't want to appear in your new context menu.
Source:
about 4 years ago
This menu should be easy to add/remove programs to... Who is really creating Access Databases from this menu often enough to keep it here? (Not me!) Is there an easy way to edit this?
I've always used ShellNewHandler for this. It's a really simple portable utility that allows you to remove most of the items from that menu. Tested it out on Windows 11 and it's still compatible.
Source:
over 5 years ago
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