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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, espanso
seems to be a lot more popular than ShellNewHandler.
While we know about 104 links to espanso,
we've tracked only 2 mentions of ShellNewHandler.
social mentions
104 vs 2
Text Expander popularity
100% vs 0%
Base details
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
Cross-platform compatibility Espanso works on Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing a consistent experience across different operating systems.
Open-source Being open-source allows users to inspect the code, contribute to the project, and ensure there are no hidden issues or vulnerabilities.
Highly customizable Users can create their own custom snippets and workflows, allowing for a tailored text expansion experience.
Extensible with packages Espanso supports community-contributed packages, which can extend its functionalities and add new features.
Supports various input types It supports a range of input types such as text, dates, clipboard content, and even shell commands.
Lightweight and fast Espanso is designed to be resource-efficient, ensuring it runs smoothly even on older hardware.
Possible disadvantages
Learning curve Due to its high customizability and powerful feature set, new users might find it challenging to get started.
Limited GUI Espanso primarily relies on configuration files for customization, which might be less user-friendly compared to other text expanders with comprehensive graphical interfaces.
Potential compatibility issues Some applications may not interact well with Espanso's text expansion features, leading to unpredictable behavior.
Active development required As a relatively new and evolving project, Espanso still requires active development to address bugs, introduce new features, and improve stability.
Dependency on community packages While extensibility via packages is a strength, it also means that some features depend on third-party contributions, which may vary in quality and maintenance.
No features have been listed yet.
Analysis
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.
espansoShellNewHandler
No analysis of espanso yet.
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
This setup is a little more hands on to install and setup, but it is worth it. No weird glitches, crashing or other issues, it just a simple system works as it should. It doesn't have all the same features as...
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.
espanso104 mentionsShellNewHandler2 mentions
Life after the merge: why publishing an Obsidian plugin is just the beginning
Espanso is the dominant system-wide text expander — the one you reach for when you want expansion to work in any app, not just the editor you're in. It also has something Obsidian plugins almost never have: a packages ecosystem. Espanso...
- Source: dev.to
/
6 months ago
TextExpander Alternatives for Mac in 2026: An Honest Comparison
If you have a few dozen frequently-used phrases and you're tired of paying TextExpander's subscription, you can probably leave. QUICOPY ($9.99 lifetime) and Espanso (free) cover most personal use cases.
- Source: dev.to
/
6 months ago
When espanso breaks on long replacement strings (and how to fix it)
I’ve been using espanso for a while now (it’s a neat little open-source text expander that makes typing repetitive stuff a breeze). All was fine and dandy—until I tried adding a longer replacement string, something like:.
- Source: dev.to
/
9 months 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
Alternatives to espanso and ShellNewHandler
When comparing espanso and ShellNewHandler, you can also consider the following products.
TextExpander
PhraseExpress
aText
Beeftext
Text Blaze
AutoHotkey
FastKeys
