diff --git a/src/menu.c b/src/menu.c
index 06de61e..a3319c1 100644
--- a/src/menu.c
+++ b/src/menu.c
@@ -188,6 +188,10 @@ void dispatch_menu_result(const char *input)
  */
 void context_menu(void)
 {
+        if (settings.dmenu_cmd == NULL) {
+                fprintf(stderr, "dmenu command not set properly. Cowardly refusing to open the context menu.\n");
+                return;
+        }
         char *dmenu_input = NULL;
 
         for (GList * iter = g_queue_peek_head_link(displayed); iter;
diff --git a/src/settings.c b/src/settings.c
index 1b5432a..9826167 100644
--- a/src/settings.c
+++ b/src/settings.c
@@ -325,7 +325,16 @@ void load_settings(char *cmdline_config_path)
                 "path to dmenu"
         );
 
-        settings.dmenu_cmd = string_to_argv(settings.dmenu);
+        {
+                GError *error = NULL;
+                if (!g_shell_parse_argv(settings.dmenu, NULL, &settings.dmenu_cmd, &error)) {
+                        fprintf(stderr, "Unable to parse dmenu command: %s\n", error->message);
+                        fprintf(stderr, "dmenu functionality will be disabled.\n");
+                        g_error_free(error);
+                        settings.dmenu_cmd = NULL;
+                }
+        }
+
 
         settings.browser = option_get_string(
                 "global",
diff --git a/test/utils.c b/test/utils.c
index d510d5f..509bf78 100644
--- a/test/utils.c
+++ b/test/utils.c
@@ -74,31 +74,6 @@ TEST test_string_append(void)
         PASS();
 }
 
-TEST test_string_to_argv(void)
-{
-        char **argv = string_to_argv("argv");
-        ASSERT_STR_EQ("argv", argv[0]);
-        ASSERT_EQ(    NULL,   argv[1]);
-        free(argv[0]);
-        free(argv);
-        argv = NULL;
-
-        argv = string_to_argv("echo test");
-        ASSERT_STR_EQ("echo", argv[0]);
-        ASSERT_STR_EQ("test", argv[1]);
-        ASSERT_EQ(    NULL,   argv[2]);
-        free(argv[0]);
-        free(argv[1]);
-        free(argv);
-        argv = NULL;
-
-        argv = string_to_argv("");
-        ASSERT_EQ(    NULL,   argv[0]);
-        free(argv);
-
-        PASS();
-}
-
 TEST test_string_strip_delimited(void)
 {
         char *text = malloc(128 * sizeof(char));
@@ -133,7 +108,6 @@ SUITE(suite_utils)
         RUN_TEST(test_string_replace_all);
         RUN_TEST(test_string_replace);
         RUN_TEST(test_string_append);
-        RUN_TEST(test_string_to_argv);
         RUN_TEST(test_string_strip_delimited);
 }
 /* vim: set tabstop=8 shiftwidth=8 expandtab textwidth=0: */