Differences between .ContextMenu and .ContextMenuStrip

Question

What are the differences between .ContextMenu and .ContextMenuStrip in Windows Forms?

I already know what a ContextMenu is, but ho

Answer 1

From the doc

ContextMenuStrip replaces ContextMenu.

Answer 2

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=606224&seqNum=2

You might wonder why Microsoft has replaced a valuable and popular control with a newcomer. The ContextMenuStrip control takes a good idea and makes it better. It works just like the ContextMenu control. You still attach a ContextMenuStrip control to another user control by changing that control’s ContextMenuStrip property. However, Microsoft has substantially improved the features you can add to a ContextMenuStrip cont...

Look at the examples at MSDN:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.contextmenustrip.aspx

ContextMenuStrip replaces ContextMenu. You can associate a ContextMenuStrip with any control, and a right mouse click automatically displays the shortcut menu. You can show a ContextMenuStrip programmatically by using the Show method. ContextMenuStrip supports cancelable Opening and Closing events to handle dynamic population and multiple-click scenarios. ContextMenuStrip supports images, menu-item check state, text, access keys, shortcuts, and cascading menus.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.contextmenustrip.aspx

If a ContextMenu has also been assigned to the control, the ContextMenu takes precedence over the ContextMenuStrip.

Answer 3

contextMenu - msdn and contextMenuStrip - msdn

contextMenu - Represents a shortcut menu. Although ContextMenuStrip replaces and adds functionality to the ContextMenu control of previous versions, ContextMenu is retained for both backward compatibility and future use if you choose.

ContextMenuStrip replaces and adds functionality to the ContextMenu control of previous versions

Answer 4

According to the MSDN, the ContextMenuStrip replaces the ContextMenu class:

Although ContextMenuStrip replaces and adds functionality to the ContextMenu control of previous versions, ContextMenu is retained for both backward compatibility and future use if you choose.

Source: MSDN - ContextMenu

Edit: why the -1?

Answer 5

If you hoover over ContextMenu you'll notice that ContextMenuStrip replaces it but ContextMenu has been left for compatibility purposes.