You can run litestep on top of explorer, but you'd have to use a hotkey to bring up the popup, as you wouldn't have the right-click-on-desktop capability. Alternatively, organize the shortcuts you really need into folders in your desktop, quicklaunch, and/or Favorites/Links folders. The Favorites/links can be added to the explorer file manager toolbar (like a popup on every file manager window), and any of the folders can be added to your taskbar as a toolbar. That'll give you quick, easy-to-use menus.