Windows shell extension with C#

user_223003 0
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I was wanting to write a simple windows shell extension to add to the context menu, and C# is the language I most use these days. Is it a decent choice for a shell extension? Are the interfaces easy to get to with it? Is there additional overhead that causes the menu to be slower to pop up?

Any one have good pointers for getting started?

shell-extensions windows-shell c#
3 Answers

A Raymond's post: Do not write in-process shell extensions in managed code.

A recent follow-up: Now that version 4 of the .NET Framework supports in-process side-by-side runtimes, is it now okay to write shell extensions in managed code?

The bottom line is, no, it is not okay:

The Guidance for implementing in-process extensions has been revised, and it continues the recommendation against writing shell extensions and Internet Explorer extensions (and other types of in-process extensions) in managed code, even if you're using version 4 or higher.

user_116830

At the risk of looking like a shill, EZShellExtensions is a wonderful (but non-free) framework for shell extension development in C#. You can write a simple context menu extension with about 20 lines of code and, best of all, never have to mess with COM interfaces. My company uses it (and their namespace extension framework) for a set of extensions currently in use by tens of thousands of customers and, for what it's worth, we've never had a problem with the CLR conflict described above.

Here's a quick sample to show how easy it is:

[Guid("00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"), ComVisible(true)]
[TargetExtension(".txt", true)]
public class SampleExtension : ContextMenuExtension
{
   protected override void OnGetMenuItems(GetMenuitemsEventArgs e)
   {
      e.Menu.AddItem("Sample Extension", "sampleverb", "Status/help text");
   }

   protected override bool OnExecuteMenuItem(ExecuteItemEventArgs e)
   {
      if (e.MenuItem.Verb == "sampleverb")
         ; // logic
      return true;
   }

   [ComRegisterFunction]
   public static void Register(Type t)
   {
      ContextMenuExtension.RegisterExtension(typeof(SampleExtension));
   }

   [ComUnregisterFunction]
   public static void UnRegister(Type t)
   {
      ContextMenuExtension.UnRegisterExtension(typeof(SampleExtension));
   }
}
user_2224810
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