I am using the code below to create a SharpDropHandler and have built a custom installer per your article. After I build and install the code below it appears I need to restart windows 8.1 for any updates in the code to be reflected. Same issue with the test tool. Anyone got any ideas?

using SharpShell.SharpDropHandler;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using SharpShell.Attributes;
[ComVisible(true)]
[COMServerAssociation(AssociationType.ClassOfExtension, new string[] { ".xls", ".xlsx", ".xlsb", ".xlsm"})]
public class ExcelDropHandler : SharpDropHandler
{

/// <summary>
/// Checks what operations are available for dragging onto the target with the drag files.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="dragEventArgs">The <see cref="System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.</param>
protected override void DragEnter(DragEventArgs dragEventArgs)
{  
    string[] validextensions = new string[] { ".xls", ".xlsx", ".xlsb", ".xlsm"};
    dragEventArgs.Effect =
       DragItems.All(di =>  validextensions.Contains(Path.GetExtension(di)))
            ? DragDropEffects.Link : DragDropEffects.None;

}

///// <summary>
///// Performs the drop.
///// </summary>
///// <param name="dragEventArgs">The <see cref="System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs"/> instance containing the event data.</param>
protected override void Drop(DragEventArgs dragEventArgs)
{   
    string[] files = (string[])dragEventArgs.Data.GetData(DataFormats.FileDrop);
    MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Comparing {0} to {1}",  SelectedItemPath, files[0]));
}

}

We should be able to open the context menu in the shell debugger.

Originally: https://sharpshell.codeplex.com/workitem/1399

Working with a SharpContextMenu, I selected a file with Russian characters in the path. Those characters were not marshalled correctly and appeared as question marks.

I was able to fix this by changing Shell32.DragQueryFile(), adding

[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] to lpszFile. I.e.:
    [DllImport("shell32.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
    public static extern uint DragQueryFile(IntPtr hDrop, uint iFile, [Out, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] StringBuilder lpszFile, uint cch);

See: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/533948/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Preview-Handlers?msg=4913111#xx4913111xx

In the sources I downloaded from GitHub IPreviewHandler.SetRect takes a RECT but it should be a ref RECT. The result was nonsense rectangles on a resize which prevented the preview handler from being redrawn.

Otherwise great code. Many thanks.

it only works on test, but when im installing server doesnt work

@dwmkerr Investigate:

Hi, you can download the zip containing the project from here:

http://sanskrityantra.org/MDPreview.zip

I tried to install the preview handler on Windows 8.1 and Windows 7, but it does not work.
It works in ServerManager if I load the server, install it and register it, and then choose menu Test Server in Server Shell.
To test it, you can try to get the preview of the .md file in the bin directory.

Thanks in advance

We need to support the stream position to allow various components to use the steam properly. Please also see:

http://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/Edit.aspx?fid=1828425&select=4759680&floc=/Articles/563114/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Thumbnail-Handlers&action=r

Thanks very much for your comments! I like your ideas, I've put together an idea on the github site to document these points. In terms of well known bugs, I have come across no-one so far who has had problems using managed shell extensions (beyond getting them to work in the first place, which is typically a registration issue!).

Ideas from: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/545781/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Icon-Overlay-Handlers?msg=4729349#xx4729349xx

See discussion at:

https://sharpshell.codeplex.com/discussions/454137

There is impossible to registry context menu handler by srm.exe if you don't have admin privilegies.

The Shell Debugger is being developed in d/ShellNamespaceExtension:

https://github.com/dwmkerr/sharpshell/tree/d/SharpNamespaceExtension/SharpShell/Tools/ServerManager/ShellDebugger

Currently when the debugger window is opened, an exception is thrown. The root cause seems to be that this line:

https://github.com/dwmkerr/sharpshell/blob/d/SharpNamespaceExtension/SharpShell/Tools/ServerManager/ShellDebugger/ShellDebuggerForm.cs#L182

Doesn't create a window handle. If we can have the debug window working, we can debug the namespace extensions properly,

See:

https://sharpshell.codeplex.com/discussions/541946

If the server is already registered, registering it crashes the application (the same for unregister). It should just show a warning to the user.

No matter how many items I highlight, SelectedItemPaths always has one item in it, seemingly chosen at random

If a SharpShell DeskBand has no displayname attribute, it won't register (as Windows doesn't know what to cal it in the menu) we must at least validate that this attribute is present when performing registration or validation.

Need to add the resharper/jetbrains logo to the readme and thank them for the license for the next release.

If you attempt to load a bad file for a sharpshell server, the server manager seems to add it to the list of servers and attempts to load it on each startup, servers that fail to load on startup should be removed from the list

Is it possible to force CreateMenu to be called after every CanShowMenu call? I need to customize the context menu for each file selected but CreateMenu is only being called after the first file selected.

AssociationType.AllFiles and AssociationType.Directory is no longer working since version 2.0.0 (ref. sha a880f78)

I'm trying to display a context menu on file (AssociationType.AllFiles) and folders ( AssociationType.Directory).

Apparently the nuget package for SharpShellTools 2.1 is referencing the old version of sharpshell as a dependency, this needs to be fixed

Shell namespace extensions have more options than are exposed for registration, e.g:

• WantsFORPARSING
• HideAsDelete
• HideAsDeletePerUser
• QueryForOverlay
• support custom verbs with a 'Shell' subkey.
• support custom shortcut menu handler with ShellEx.
• tie in support for a property sheet handler.

Hi,

how can I debug your native bridge and SharpShell? I have problem with IconHandler, and after installing(x64) and registering(x64) your sample explorer sometimes works and sometime crashes. But test in your ServerManager is OK. Or can you look at it and fix it?

Thank you
Peter

On Windows 8.1 the deskband is not transparent as it should be.

When you try to do the following:

[COMServerAssociation(AssociationType.ClassOfExtension, "*")]
public class ShellExtension : SharpContextMenu

RegAsm will fail and complain that The specified path is invalid. After digging through the code really quickly, not having much experience with shell extensions yet, it seems that it's trying to get the default value of HKCL\*, which is null in all cases, where as every other class such as .txt actually have a correct default value: txtfile for example.

Is it not possible to implement a handler for *? Is there a workaround for this, or will there be a fix?

Thanks for the great library, by the way!

This can be done to check if the server CLSID is in the approved list

Shawn Rubie has posted:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/533948/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Preview-Handlers?msg=4915042#xx4915042xx

This includes a fix to reduce flickering.

First of all, huge kudos for creating such a great project!

Here's my concern.
CanShowMenu() is called on every rightclick on a file or directory, and since I'm doing some more advanced inter-process communication in the logic, it might take some time to get the reply, but it would be terrible to hog every right click and make the user wait for the response from my app.
So I thought I can just put it all in a submenu which would simply always be shown, and only when the user opens it it would run the IPC to ask whether to put the elements inside. I think that's a pretty common use-case.
So I tried to put the logic into an event of the item, like so:
mainItem.DropDownOpening += (s, a) => { Log("Opened"); };
But the event never fires. It seems it's not translated into the underlying native User32 event (if such a thing even exists, I'm no specialist in that).

Is there any way to make each submenu added to the ContextMenu implement it's own CanShowMenu logic? Supporting the events would be even better, but a working workaround might make sense too.

I've researched a bit, but extern libs aren't my piece of cake, so I don't know if this might be of any help:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/edit/cmenuedit.aspx?msg=2774005#xx2774005xx

Many thanks!

See:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/512956/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Context-Menus?msg=4891458#xx4891458xx

Dear Dave,
I encountered a strange behaviour which took me a while to find out: When testing with ContextMenus and the TestServer from ServerManager.exe both variables FolderPath and SelectedItemPaths work fine.
But when testing without TestServer but InstallServer and RegisterServer with ServerManager.exe instead, the variable FolderPath is always null. I had to set a variable by myself with
string FolderPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(SelectedItemPaths.First()). I am using SharpShellTools 2.1.0.1 and SharpShell 2.1 from NuGet.
Thank you for your great work,
Klaus

Shawn Rubie has discovered some potential issues with the icon preview handler. Original post:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/533948/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Preview-Handlers?msg=4922298#xx4922298xx

Hi again,

When I got the preview control working, I had severe flickering issues when the explorer window (and inside it, the preview control) was being resized. Your base control uses WS_EX_COMPOSITED, which I read is supposed to help with flickering issues in XP, but apparently in Vista and Win7 that flag is ignored? I did manage to find a way to eliminate the flickering though:

On a resize of the explorer window, IPreviewHandler.SetRect is called, which calls UpdateHost(), which calls SetParent, sets the Bounds property, and sets Visible true for both previewHostHandle and previewHandlerControl. I'm guessing that calling SetParent causes erasing and redrawing, because if instead it only updates the Bounds when SetRect is called (really, only SetParent and Visible needs to be set once when IPreviewHandler.SetWindow is called, right?), the flickering issues disappeared for me in Win7.

To summarize, I changed SetRect to call this UpdateBounds() method below, in place of the existing UpdateHost() method, and the flickering I was seeing went away.

      /// <summary>
      /// Updates the size of the controls
      /// </summary>
      private void UpdateBounds()
      {
            OnPreviewHostThread(
                  () =>
                  {
                        //   Set the bounds of the host and control
                        previewHandlerHost.Bounds = new Rectangle(previewArea.left, previewArea.top, previewArea.Width(), previewArea.Height());
                        previewHandlerControl.Bounds = new Rectangle(previewArea.left, previewArea.top, previewArea.Width(), previewArea.Height());
                  }
            );
      }

Again, thanks for your work on the library, and your responses to my earlier questions.

Shawn

The server manager can validate a server, e.g. checking that it has the correct attributes and so on.

As per above. Used this link: https://www.nuget.org/packages/SharpShellTools/2.1.0
Causes Server Manager to not open.
How I fixed it: Deleted 2.0.0 .dll and copied 2.1.0 .dll from another location.

A deskband can be shown, hidden, but not reshown. The re-showing seems to call `CloseDWbut notOpenDW``.

See the thread at:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/573392/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Property-Sheets?msg=4908807#xx4908807xx

In a nutshell it seems that we need to try and wrap the IShellPropSheetExt.AddPages loop in an exception handler. For diagnostic purposes we should log the exceptions.

Hi!

First of all thanks for this great library!

And now to business =)
Is it possible to hide logs in EventLog? It looks like, that message in EventLog are generated for every "CanShowOverlay" call.

I have built my extension (OverlayIcon) in Release Mode and installed it using srm.exe.
I'm using SharpShell 2.1.

I have also tried to used next command, but, it seems to me, it's not related to my problem.

SharpShell.Diagnostics.Logging.EnableLogging(false);

Thanks in advance!

Hi!

I just found this library today after an exhaustive search about any information about how to add items to the navigation pane of Windows Explorer. After a while I realized that those are called Namespace extensions.
I'm basically interested to add a "top-level" item to the navigation pane (and the open/save file dialog), just like the Homegroup item:

So that clicking on it can interact and display the content of my choosing.

Some reading led me to understand I need to implement a bunch of things, mainly IShellFolder, and I was wondering whether SharpShell had any support for this already? If not, would you be interested in a pull request, in case I could hack something myself? :)

Thanks!

Let's get SharpShell working well with lnk files - check the discussion here:

https://sharpshell.codeplex.com/discussions/534997

Next release ideally

On Windows 8.1 the shell debugger is not working, it crashes immediately.

We need to support transparency of menu items via full owner draw.

See this thread:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/563114/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Thumbnail-Handlers?msg=4807929#xx4807929xx

@dwmkerr investigate

Is there any way to do these? With Win 7/8+ ?

Hello, just wondering if you are planning to add a feature for implementing Desk Bands?

They are described here - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc144099(v=vs.85).aspx#desk_bands

Here is one implementation that is available - http://www.ssware.com/shlobj/shlobj.htm#shellappbar

Thank You.

When I change the GitHub namespace extension to have MyCoumpter as the virtual junction point but for current user, an exception is thrown trying to open the correct key to create the registry entries as children of.

This is possibly because there are no per-user namespace extensions already installed, so part of the path to the required location might be missing - or it might be that some junction points are not supported for the current user. If that's the case, we need to throw an exception when attempting to register with such a configuration, informing the caller that it's not supported. If it's just that path elements are missing, we can create them as needed (and if that's the case, this bug will crop up for others when installing on vanilla machines).

Hello!

It seems that it doesn't work completely for shortcuts, it works perfectly with files and directories, but not with shortcuts.
It adds new items to context menu well, but when I click on some new added item it doesn't invoke command that should be performed.
I've made small investigation and noticed one thing (I hope, it will help you a little bit) :
when I click on new added item in the context menu in the function 'IContextMenu.InvokeCommand(IntPtr pici)'(SharpContextMenu.cs file) variable 'iciex' in fields 'verb' and 'verbW' has too big numbers like 236255072 or 286797496 and then it can not match this click to the appropriate command.

Thanks in advance.

Currently we only support virtual junction points for shell namespace extensions. We can support file system junction points too, see the:

``` SharpNamespaceExtension.CustomRegisterFunction````

And take it from there.

See the comment chain at:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/563114/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Thumbnail-Handlers?msg=4814158#xx4814158xx

Involves implementing a separate base class with the IInitializeFromFile interface.

We can tidy up the registry code by creating extension methods that do the null checks and throw exceptions.

See: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/512956/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Context-Menus?msg=4710563#xx4710563xx

Hey,

when I'm right-clicking on more than 16 selected files and/or directories for the first time, my context menu handler don't show up on each file/directory as I'd expect. I found out that this happens because at the very beginning the selectedItem count is somehow set to 16, although I have selected a lot more than 16 files and/or directories. But when I click on the handler of one of the file/directory which shows the menu, the selectedItem count is set to the real number of elements I have selected.

Do you have any suggestion why this happens or what I could do to avoid this behaviour?

Thanks!!

Try adding an extension for InfoTips and use it on folders that is in a folder that only has one folder (i.e. it's the only folder in the current folder).
See attached image.

Hello,
I had to tune srm.exe (v 2.1) for the following scenario :
-I have an assembly A.dll (made with C#) that contains my ISharpShellServer exports
-A.dll has a dependency : B.dll (made with C++/CLI)
-A.dll and B.dll are in the same folder
-when trying to use "srm.exe install A.dll -codebase", it fails, claiming that "B.dll" cannot be found

Please note that regasm.exe A.dll /register /codebase does not fail and works very well in that case.

My solution :
ServerRegistrationManager.HandleEmbeddedReference is already used to install a resolve handler
The resolve handler should be smarter. Actually, it is only used to load embedded resources. But it should work for external dependencies as well.
When it is called for B.dll, It should try to load it from the folder of A.dll.

It works, I have done it.

Regards