Pointers for writing context menu items for windows explorer [closed]

Answer 1

If you are trying to achieve something simple, like adding an item with an icon that launches a .NET app, you can try this:

Take a look at the Windows registry. Under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT you'll find all the file extensions. If you select one of those keys you will see the standard name of the extension. Search for a node under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT with that name and you'll see this key structure:

CLSID
DefaultIcon
Shell
  Edit
    Command
  Open
    Command
ShellEx

Each node under Shell refers to a context menu item. The default value for these nodes (like Edit or Open) is the text shown in the menu. The default value for Command tells you which app to launch. Example: notepad.exe %1 (where %1 is a placeholder for the file url). The default value for DefaultIcon is the url of the icon, if any.

Take a look at this article for an example: Add a context menu to the Windows Explorer

Answer 2

writing context menu items for windows explorer using C#

Don't do it. Really. Raymond Chen has a great writeup on why you shouldn't.

Now, that article is pretty old. Some things have changed since then, like .NET 4.0 supporting SxS. Previously, loading two CLR versions into the same process (like 2.0 and 1.1) would fail horribly. You can load 2.0 and 4.0 into the same process.

However there are other concerns.

1. The CLR can take a noticeable amount of time to load. Users don't like that.
2. Loading the entire CLR into explorer's virtual memory just to display a context menu seems like a bit much.

Instead, I would suggest writing it the old fashion, unmanaged way.