Recently, out of the blue, I could not right-click on the desktop on my small Windows 10 system. Sure, I can use the keyboard shortcut Shift + F10 to access the desktop context menu. However, compared to the habitual mouse-click, the keyboard shortcut is awkward. Thankfully, it is extremely simple to fix the problem. If you ever face this situation, here's how you can fix cannot right-click around the desktop problem in Windows 10.

There are a number of products that induce right-click problems around the Windows 10 desktop. As such, you will find multiple ways to fix can't right-click around the desktop in Windows 10. I will show four different ways you can fix the problem. Stick to the methods one after the other before the problem is fixed. Alternatively, you can use the jump links below to quickly visit the method you want.

1. Switch off Tablet Mode to Fix Right-Click Not Working on Desktop

Windows 10 includes a built-in tablet mode that's quite helpful for touchscreen and tablet-like or hybrid devices like Surface Pro. When the tablet mode is turned on, the desktop is hidden to show the full-screen start menu. As a result, you can't right-click on desktop.

Named mode is turned off by default. However, Windows might turn on the tablet mode automatically under certain situations. However, considering how the tablet mode choice is put into the experience center, it is quite entirely possible that you've turned on the tablet mode. If that's the case, you can turn off tablet mode entirely to get your desktop back and right-click working.

Open the Settings app by press Win + I.
Go to "System -> Tablet Mode" page.
On the best panel, select "Use desktop mode" in the drop-down menu under "When I sign in".

That's all. You should now have the desktop mode back and then right-click on it.

2. Run DISM Tool to Fix Can't Right-Click On Desktop

Running the built-in DISM tool fixes lots of issues on Windows. Nonfunctioning right-click on desktop is nothing special.

Open the start menu.

Search for "cmd".

Right-click onto it and choose "Run as administrator".

Within the command prompt window, execute the below command.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

Next, execute the below command.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Reboot Windows.

That is all. The above mentioned commands will scan the body and restore any corrupted files. This should fix the desktop nonfunctional right-click issue.

3. Enable Right-Click on Desktop by Modifying Registry

Sometimes, a registry value called NoViewContextMenu may be the reason for explore being able to right-click on Windows 10 desktop. So, modifying this value should enable right-click around the desktop.

Open the start menu.

Search for regedit and open it up.

Go to the following location.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

On the right panel, find and double-click on the "NoViewContextMenu" value.

Type "0" within the value data field.

Click on the "Ok" button.

Close registry editor.

Reboot Windows.

After rebooting, the can't right-click on the desktop in Windows 10 ought to be fixed.

4. Delete Useless ContextMenuHandler Registry Keys to Fix Can't Right-Click on Desktop

Sometimes, keys and values created by other apps can be conflicting using the desktop right-click functionality. To repair this, you can delete all of the keys apart from the one which includes Windows 10.

Warning: Before, it is very important that you simply backup registry. If your system misbehaves after deleting the keys, you can restore the backup and get your system ready to go.

Open the start menu.

Search for regedit and open it.

Visit the following location.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Expand "ContextMenuHandlers" key.

Excluding the below-listed keys, delete all the other keys underneath the "ContextMenuHandlers" key.
FileSyncEx
New
Sharing
WorkFolders

Once the keys are deleted, this is the way it should seem like in the Registry Editor.

Close registry editor.

Reboot Windows.

That is all. After rebooting, the cannot right-click around the desktop in Windows 10 ought to be fixed.