I use Wix Toolset v3.11 to generate an .msi installer for my Windows application.
How can I have a publisher name appear in the entry for my application in Settings -> Apps & features?
I noticed that some entries in that list include a publisher name underneath the app name:
I set <Product ... Manufacturer="My Company Name" ... in my .wxs file and I can see this is stored in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\<guid>\Publisher.
But apparently that isn't enough to make the publisher appear in the list of programs. The apps that do show a publisher (Windows Store apps?) are stored in a different part of the registry.
From what I've noticed the publisher's name appears only for apps packages as an .APPX/.MSIX package. Not for those installed from an MSI/EXE setup.
The source of the APPX/MSIX package does not matter, I have packages installed from outside the store (sideloaded) which display the publisher's name correctly.
If you want to learn more about MSIX/APPX packages, check out this introduction guide I wrote.
I, too, wanted to list my name as the publisher of my applications in the Settings Apps & Features list. So, I went searching for how to do that and found your post on Stack Overflow. Then an idea struck so I tried it out, and what-da-ya-know … it worked! Not perfectly, but “good enough” for what I wanted to do. Perhaps good enough for you, and others, also.
In the “Uninstall” Registry key for my apps, I append a line-break character and my name to the “DisplayName” value. Like this:
Registry Entry
The line-break character can be a Line Feed (0A), Vertical Tab (0B), Form Feed (0C), or Carriage Return (0D). Any of them work (as does a CR+LF combination). I like the FF because it displays as an up arrow in RegEdit and text files (such as .reg scripts), which makes it easy to select, cut, copy, and paste.
This method does cause a blank link to appear in the Settings Apps & Features list:
Apps List
But I can live with that, and I suspect that the few users who actually notice the extra blank line won’t give it a second thought. Given how easy it is to add my “Publisher” name, it is an acceptable imperfection.
Related
I have folders full of log files, and I'd like to display their final status in a column in the folder they are in. That is, in Details view I want to make a new column that shows a piece of text which is extracted from each file. I don't expect to find such a thing out there, and the searches I've tried haven't even yielded a hint about how I would go about writing a plugin to do any such thing. Is it possible?
This sort of thing used to be possible with custom column handler shell extensions but Microsoft removed support for those in Vista (3rd-party Explorer replacements might still support them).
Microsofts inadequate replacement are property handlers. You cannot do this for .log files, you would have to invent a .myapp-log file extension.
Some people abuse the Windows 10 cloud API to create columns but that only works in specific folders.
If you are looking for a specific string in the last line, you could perhaps use a custom icon handler for .log files.
(Not sure if this belongs on superusers, but it seems there is a cmd.exe tag here, so here goes...)
As background, I'm working on a Firefox add-on (This question does not require knowledge of Firefox, btw, as Firefox add-ons can call the command line.) The add-on aims to build different kinds of shortcuts to cmd.exe (especially for the sake of my project https://github.com/brettz9/webappfind which allows files to be opened directly from the desktop into web apps).
Anyways, I'd like to give users the option to associate these shortcuts:
As the default handler for specific file extensions or file types.
To show up within the Open With list of applications (even if the user opts not to make the apps as default handlers)
As far as the default handling, I have found the ftype and assoc (and associate) commands, but I have read that user selections will override their behavior. Is there some way to ensure that I can get priority from the command line in associating file extensions to types and specific executables (until the user changes it again), or if it is not possible, then at least through C++ or the like?
As far as the Open With list:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\<file extension>\OpenWithList
...in my testing (with an exe), this command:
reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.svg\OpenWithList /v d /d D:\wamp\www\webappfind\cplusplus\WebAppFinder-view-mode-Firefox.exe
...did cause the exe file to show up in:
reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.svg\OpenWithList
...but it did not show up when I subsequently right-clicked a file with the ".svg" extension.
I would really appreciate any help with these two points.
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\MYFOO.exe\shell\open\command]
#="\"C:\\MYFOO.exe\" \"%1\""
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.myfoo]
"Application"="MYFOO.EXE"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.myfoo\OpenWithList]
"a"="MYFOO.EXE"
"MRUList"="a"
So I got to an investigation what makes those file associations. It appears that you have to create a mapping from the bare EXE name to the full path as shown in the first two long-ish lines. Then you must only use the EXE name in the .extension branch. Setting the .extension's Application value will give you your default app instantly. Remember, only use APP.EXE, its full path must be defined as above. This was your main error. The "%1" part allows you to customize the parameters of your program so that it doesn't have to be just the opened document in quotes, as shown here. The backslashes are just escape characters for Regedit, you may discard them as you see fit.
The OpenWithList is tricky in the sense that there are letters for entries and just a blind write may overwrite some of the user's favorite apps. One approach would be to call your item "z" to lower the probability of overwriting. The right way would be enumerating the key and giving your app the first free letter. The MRUList is not essential, although it should have each used letter once and yours bumped to the start.
Note about user friendliness: Explorer will cache these values until next reboot. Make sure you update the registry and place exe first and create your file later. Although the caching only fully influences the display of the file and when it is run, the registry is read again and it will execute as you want.
TIP: If you decide to use Regedit instead of reg, the /s parameter skips the confirmation message and applies the values right away. Make sure you use double backslashes in the full path as shown. When preparing your temporary .reg file, make sure you append two CRLF's to the end or a glitch may cause your last line of code to be ignored. This sample starts with REGEDIT4 which signifies an ANSI file. If you need support for Unicode in your app path, you'll have to start the file with Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 and store it in UTF16. This is already a superior solution to calling reg because there's no way you could get CMD.EXE to process special UTF stuff through the command line without mangling.
Does anyone know (Because on microsoft forums nobody answered me), how can I find what app has which automaticDestinations-ms file in %appdata%\microsoft\windows\recent\automaticdestinations ?
That's the folder where Windows 7 stores its jump lists, and I want to know how to automatically/programmatic find the relation between each file and an application.
At least, even manual I didn't found any pattern, just to look after file extensions in the files, because some programs open files with the same extension (like images), so this method it's not OK for all programs.
Do you have any other idea? Maybe knowing the format of those files?
Thanks.
the GUIDs appear to persist.
I was trying to edit my control panel jumplist - I found where the "Realtek HD audio manager" control-panel-applet-title-string is (using resource hacker on "C:\Windows\System32\RTSnMg64.cpl"), and restored it's original title ("Dell Audio" - 'cause I'm OCD:) but the original pinned Realtek entry is stuck.
A quick filesearch for pinned took me to
C:\Users\Jonny\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned
but I really needed to be # C:\Users\Jonny\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations
If you use something like Nirsoft's Jumplist View you can see the entries etc. Sort by "application ID" column to see jumplists by application. You can even change the monitored folder (advanced options).
I'm going to have to delete and recreate my control panel jumplist (7e4dca80246863e3.automaticDestinations-ms).
TIP: If you're not sure which is which, try pinning a new jumplist-entry to an application. This will appear at the top (if sorted by "record time")
The best way to find out is to sort the files by date modified, then interact with your machine, eg open a file with Powerpoint, look and see what file moved to the top. That is probably the file for Powerpoint, which you can confirm by opening it and looking in it.
Then you could build a table of magic guids, and search for those in the registry to see if there is an obvious key connecting the guid to an application id.
Here is a list of 620 applications here with the corresponding App ID byEricZimmerman
https://github.com/EricZimmerman/JumpList/blob/master/JumpList/Resources/AppIDs.txt
eg 0a1d19afe5a80f80|FileZilla 2.2.32
last update 12 days ago
I'm trying to programmatically check file associations by the file extension (for example .jnlp files). I keep reading that
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\JNLPFile\Shell\Open\Command
is the Registry key to check. However, if you change the association through Windows Explorer:
Open With > Choose Program > (Always use the selected program)
the change isn't at all reflected in this Registry key. Where else is this information stored?
Take a look in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\
and the sub-key of that is the extension you reassigned. Under that there will be the UserChoice and OpenWithList sub-keys which will contain your redefinition.
You may also want to read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950505 which talks about your issue.
Update
As of Windows 8, life has gotten far more complicated. To create an extension association a custom hash needs to get calculated.
Fortunately, someone has reverse engineered the process and created a PowerShell script to do this without having to go through any GUI.
You can find it at the following GitHub link:
https://github.com/DanysysTeam/PS-SFTA
This is a two-part look-up.
First, you look up the default value of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\[file_extension]. For your extensions, .jnlp, the value is "JNLPFile". Let's call this the [file_descriptor].
Now you can look up the default value of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\[file_descriptor]\Shell\[action]\command (where [action] is the shell action you are interested in, e.g.: Open, Print, Edit, etc.).
On:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.jnlp\OpenWithList
Tip: Edit>Find is pretty handy at these situations. :)
In XP, you can change the verbs for a file type (open, edit, print, etc) via Tools->Folder Options. I can't find this in the Vista.
I know there's a programmatic/registry-matic way to do it, but how does one change this in the UI? Googling didn't help me much.
The File Types tab was removed in Vista (and later versions) and there is no real replacement, the closest you can get is the Default Programs section in Control Panel but it does not give you the same control over the verbs, you can only pick from a fixed list provided by the products installed on your machine.
There is also a 3rd-party program called Default Programs Editor you could take a look at.