New to Telerik UI for WPF? Start a free 30-day trial

Getting Started

Updated on Sep 28, 2026

This tutorial walks you through the creation of a RadContextMenu.

Before reading this tutorial you should get familiar with the Visual Structure of the standard RadContextMenu control.

Adding Telerik Assemblies Using NuGet

To use RadContextMenu when working with NuGet packages, install the Telerik.Windows.Controls.Navigation.for.Wpf.Xaml package. The package name may vary slightly based on the Telerik dlls set - Xaml or NoXaml

Read more about NuGet installation in the Installing UI for WPF from NuGet Package article.

With the 2025 Q1 release, the Telerik UI for WPF has a new licensing mechanism. Learn more in Installing the License Key.

Adding Assembly References Manually

If you are not using NuGet packages, you can add a reference to the following assemblies:

Telerik.Licensing.Runtime
Telerik.Windows.Controls
Telerik.Windows.Controls.Navigation

You can find the required assemblies for each control from the suite in the Controls Dependencies help article.

In order to add a RadContextMenu control to your UserControl you have to declare the following namespace:

Declare the Telerik Namespace

XAML

xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation"

This tutorial will show you how to attach a RadContextMenu to a TextBox control. Here is the TextBox control definition.

Define the TextBox

XAML

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot"
      Background="White">
    <TextBox x:Name="InputBox"
             Width="200"
             VerticalAlignment="Top">
    </TextBox>
</Grid>

The next step is to set the ContextMenu attached property of the RadContextMenu class to the TextBox control.

ContextMenu="{x:Null}" is needed to override the default context menu of the textbox.

Attach RadContextMenu to the TextBox

XAML

<Grid xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation"
    Background="White">
    <TextBox Width="200"
             VerticalAlignment="Top"
             ContextMenu="{x:Null}">
        <telerik:RadContextMenu.ContextMenu>
            <telerik:RadContextMenu />
        </telerik:RadContextMenu.ContextMenu>
    </TextBox>
</Grid>

If you run the application and right-click on the TextBox you will see an empty context menu.

RadContextMenu with an Empty Context Menu WPF RadContextMenu with Empty Context Menu

The class that represents the menu item is Telerik.Windows.Controls.RadMenuItem. To learn more about it, please take a look at the RadMenu help content.

The RadContextMenu accepts RadMenuItems as child items. Here is a sample declaration of several child menu items.

Define RadMenuItems

XAML

<TextBox xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation"
         Width="200"
         VerticalAlignment="Top"
         ContextMenu="{x:Null}">
    <telerik:RadContextMenu.ContextMenu>
        <telerik:RadContextMenu>
            <telerik:RadMenuItem Header="Copy" />
            <telerik:RadMenuItem Header="Paste" />
            <telerik:RadMenuItem Header="Cut" />
            <telerik:RadMenuItem IsSeparator="True" />
            <telerik:RadMenuItem Header="Select All" />
        </telerik:RadContextMenu>
    </telerik:RadContextMenu.ContextMenu>
</TextBox>

Here is a snapshot of the result.

RadContextMenu with Menu Items WPF RadContextMenu with Populated Context Menu

Populating the RadContextMenu with Data

The scenario described in the previous sections covers the usage of static items, declared directly in XAML.

However, in most of the cases you have to bind your RadContextMenu to a collection of business objects. Check out the Data Binding article which describes in detail how to work with dynamic data, including the supported data sources and the ItemContainerStyle mechanism.

To adjust the appearance of the RadContextMenu's items depending on the data they hold, read the Item Template and Style Selectors article.

Working with the RadContextMenu

In order to learn how to use the RadContextMenu and what capabilities it holds, read the various topics that describe its features.

Getting Started

Adding Telerik Assemblies Using NuGet

Adding Assembly References Manually

Attaching Context Menu to UI Element

Adding Menu Items

Populating the RadContextMenu with Data

Working with the RadContextMenu

Telerik UI for WPF Learning Resources

See Also