How would one go about adding a submenu item to the windows explorer context menu (like for example 7-Zip does) for a Java application?
I am aware of two ways to do it. The fancy way is to write a windows shell extension, which is how powerarchiver, winzip etc do it I believe (this involves running code to determine what the context menu items will be dependent on the file chosen).
The simple way, for simple functionality, is you can add an entry in the registry :
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\<file type>\shell\<display text>\command
Where <file type> is the files that this context menu should apply to i.e. *, .mdb, .doc
and
<display text> what you want to show in the context menu.
Then add the default string as a path to the application you want to launch from the context menu, and you can use %1 to refer to the currently selected file i.e. for MS Access I use :
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\MS Access 2000\command
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\MSACCESS.EXE" "%1"
This then adds a context menu item for any file I select (hence the *), which allows me to launch it in MS Access 2000.
Of course, always back up your registry before hacking it.
Your program could do this during install, or on first run.
You could also package the java program in an installer like NSIS and you could use NSIS script to generate explorer context menu
Related
I have been working on creating a pretty advanced GUI enabled database in Microsoft Access and am now in the implementation phase of my project.
My dream is to make an .exe file that will point to the actual .accdb database file (which will be hidden) as I cannot change the icon of the .accdb but will be able to modify the .exe's icon thus giving my implementation a more professional feel.
I'd prefer not to just create a shortcut to the .accdb and change that icon.
Through some quick digging, my plan was to create a .bat file that opens the .accdb and then use some online ".bat to .exe" converter to then add an icon to the .exe.
I can't figure out how to create a .bat file that opens my .accdb. I've tried a variety of different things like:
start "" C:\Program Files (x86)\CompassTrack "Science Department.accdb"
and other things that dont work.
It occurred to me that a .bat to .exe approach may not be the best way to do this. I don't particularily like the brief command prompt window appearance and would be open to any suggestions as to how to get a nice looking .exe file to open my .accdb.
If the best way really is a .bat file, I'd appreciate some help with the .bat file. The path to the file is C:\Program Files (x86)\CompassTrack\Science Department.accdb but for some reason every time, command prompt would return "Cannot find C:\Program "
Thanks in advance!
to change icon of an exe file using batch, look here
and to start your file use:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\CompassTrack"
start "" "Science Departement.accdb"
I believe you can just change the icon of your Access database. Go to Current Database (in recent versions under Office Button > Access Options) and the option is in there.
Here's a really simple C# program that you can compile into an exe very easily to if you have .NET 3.5 installed. it uses a utility called the command line compiler. You'll have to change the file path obviously.
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
public class App
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Process myProcess = new Process();
myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = #"c:/your_file_path_goes_here/YourDB.accdb";
myProcess.Start();
}
}
You'll write the above to a text file with the extension .cs. Then create a batch file (a text file with the extension .bat) with this code.
#echo OFF
echo Compiling A File . . .
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\csc.exe /win32icon:_.ico /target:winexe /recurse:*.cs
echo.
#pause
Put these in the same dir as whatever icon you want to use, but make sure the icon is an iso file named _, as seen in the batch program. When you run the bat file, it will create the exe with the icon of your choice and it will simply launch the access database.
The feature and ability is part of the Access development system. Attempting to modify some .exe file etc. will not work.
I do suggest that you set the icon under file->options current database. It not clear why this is not working (perhaps start a new question to resolve that issue).
Keep in mind that if you deploy or change the resulting location, then you have to change the above “options” setting (manually, or by code – this much explain why your icon is not displaying – the path name cannot be relative – must be absolute.
ALSO select the box that says to use the icon for all forms and reports (this will give your application a MUCH more polished look. Since the .exe that actually runs your file is msacces.exe, then you can’t really change the application icon any other way. You see icons for the application AND ALSO forms like this "when" you set the application icon as per above:
So you WILL want to set the application icon. You then create a shortcut on your desktop. And again set the icon for that windows shortcut (it will nicely show up in the task bar with that icon).
The actual shortcut will look much like this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\MSACCESS.EXE"
"c:\RidesDev\SkiRides\ RidesXP.accde" /runtime
The above shortcut will be on a single line (space between the two lines). The above is for Access 2010, so for 2013, then the folder is office15, and for 2016, it is office16 in above.
Also NOTE very important is the /runtime. This will ensure that the access icon NEVER shows during start-up.
Also, during start-up you will often see the MS Access splash logo during start-up. E.g. this:
You can replace this splash screen by placing a .bmp (picture) file in the SAME folder as the accDE with the same name.
So in above, if I place a RidesXMP.bmp picture file, then during start-up in place of the access splash screen, you see this:
Since you likely want the forms + reports icon to be custom, then the above makes the most sense. Your approach would ONLY give you a desktop icon, not one for the task bar, forms etc.
The above will result in hiding the access splash logo during start-up, and also apply an icon to all forms etc. I don’t suggest some approach that attempts to modify some .exe or some such – that’s likely to cause issues on customers computers. And using some .exe will not give you the icon for forms and repots.
To add a Windows shell context menu, let's say for .txt files - if the .txt extension in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT (or in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes, doesn't really matter) has the default value (file type) txtfile - you add the command to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile\shell\yourcommand (and the command itself in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile\shell\yourcommand\command, of course) and there you go.
However, let's say the .txt extension instead has the default value Notepad++_file. Notepad++_file might be the file type for many other extensions, so if you add the command to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Notepad++_file, then this command will appear for every extension associated with Notepad++.
So, the question is: how can you add a menu entry for ONLY ONE specific EXTENSION, without changing its file type, if possible at all?
P.S.: I don't want to just duplicate the file type, because future changes to the original file type won't affect the duplicated one.
Here you go:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\your custom app]
#="Open with your custom app"
"icon"="C:\\Windows\\notepad.exe,0"
"AppliesTo"=".nfo"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\your custom app\command]
#="C:\\Windows\\notepad.exe \"%1\""
The line "AppliesTo"=".nfo" does the trick.
Works perfectly on Windows 10.
It works per file extension, regardless if there is an application associated with that extension or not. Doing this way it less invasive and leaves a very small footprint in the registry.
Compare to Add menu item to windows context menu only for specific filetype
Edit:
If you want to apply that command to more than one extension use:
"AppliesTo"="System.FileName:\"*.nfo\" OR System.FileName:\"*.log\""
Credit: https://superuser.com/questions/183785/windows-7-context-menu-for-folders-if-folder-contains-certain-filetypes
I've added a Windows right-click menu item by adding registry keys to HKCR\*\shell, where the command is of the form "path\to\my\program.exe" "params before" "%1" "params after". It seems that, if the user right-clicks on a shortcut (.lnk file), Windows is resolving the shortcut and passing the target file's path in as %1. Does anyone know where this is documented? This is used on Windows 7 and Windows XP machines.
Thanks!
I don't know if it is documented anywhere but it makes sense if you think about it. 99% of the time you want to see the context menu for the target, for a batch file for example it will show the (default) open verb and the edit verb. If the shortcut implementation did not do this then the context menu would be pretty useless since it would only contain commands related to the .lnk file (Cut, Copy, Delete and Properties)
If you also register a verb under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\Shell, that verb should have the path to the .lnk when executed.
I would like to write a context menu for Markdown files for Windows XP, when I right click on a Markdown file it should display "View in browser" option. It could use MardownSharp or Discount to convert it in HTML and show it using the default browser. I guess that building such feature shouldn't require too much knowledge of the Windows platform. My question is: where should I start considering the fact that I would want to write this tool without using MS Visual Studio (I would like to use opensource software)? Could it be possible to use Mono?
See this answer on how to convert Markdown to HTML. As far as adding this as a context menu, this is a built-in feature of the Windows registry:
Browse to or create the following key. This assumes the file extension is .mdml (as I am unfamiliar with any set standard on this file format). If that's not the case, replace .mdml with the file extension(s) you are looking for, or * for all files, regardless of extension.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mdml\Shell\
Browse to or create a new sub-key called something like "View in browser" and a sub-sub-key called "Command" (must be this word). In that key, modify the default to display the program and arguments to launch (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\NOTEPAD.EXE "%1").
You should now be able to browse to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mdml\Shell\View in browser\Command\
and see the launch parameters in (Default).
The software Dropbox provides an shell extension which adds context menu items to all files in a specific folder. One of these generates a public link to view the selected file.
In a C# tool I want to call this entry without any user interaction. I want to achieve the same behavior as if the user clicked on the context menu item of a selected file.
I know that the shell extension is provided by a DLL, is it possible to make a call to this DLL to achieve the expected behavior?
Shell extensions implement IContextMenu and it is possible to execute menu commands without showing a menu (See this blog post for details about "hosting" IContextMenu)
Once you have the menu, you would call IContextMenu::GetCommandString and look for a specific verb, if Dropbox does not have a somewhat unique verb, you are going to have to do something hacky, either match by menu text alone, or call the Dropbox shell extension dll directly (DllGetClassObject export) and fake everything (Pretend to be COM and shell) or if you know the CLSID, you can at least get help from COM and just do the shell part.
There is a freeware tool called runmenu that allows you to play with shell menus/IContextMenu (I'm sure you can find a copy somewhere)