TL;DR

I want to open my Electron App through a Windows Folder Shortcut (right-click on any folder and click Run In My Electron App), and get the folder path that initiated the app.

I managed to create the shortcut using windows Registry, but I can't find a way to get the path of the folder that initiated the app. (in the shortcut, "Temporary")

So in the above shortcut, the goal is to know the path of F:\ePC\Libraries\Videos\Loom\Temporary inside the electron app. (and the path should always be matching the folder that initiated the app).

A real-world working example: Just like when using WinRAR, you can right-click on a folder and click "Add to archive..." - the WinRAR app knows the path of the folder that has been right-clicked on. (Kind of like "open file with", but "open folder with").

Another real-world example that works with Electron is Visual Studio Code, you can right-click on a folder and click "Open With Code". How did they do that?

My Attempt

I tried to look over the documentation of Electron but only found a way to get the path of the EXE file, but not the folder that excecated that file using the Windows folder shortcut.

I tried also process.argv but it gives me the path of the exe file, and not the initiating folder.

Steps to reproduce the my attempt and test it yourself:

1. Get the repository and clone it. (It only has 3 files: index.js, index.html and package.json).

2. Open that folder in the command line and run npm install

3. Export the electron app by running npm run package-win. this should export the exe file to [relative app path]/rlease-builds/windows-folder-electron-shortcut-win32-ia32/windows-folder-electron-shortcut.exe.

4. To add the windows shortcut for the app: In the windows, registry create this:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Run In My Electron App\command

Here's a step by step:

• 4 a. Open "Registry Editor" in Windows.
• 4 b. Head over to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell and create a new folder called "Run In My Electron App"
• 4 c. Inside the created folder, create command folder.
• 4 d. Double click on the default value and change it to the full path of the exe file.

(In my case the default value is: C:\Users\elron\apps\windows-folder-electron-shortcut\rlease-builds\Paste Folder Icon-win32-ia32\Paste Folder Icon.exe. Make sure that the path is YOUR path of .exe file of the exported app.)

When done with step 4, It should look something like this:

Result:

When running the app through a folder shortcut, it will give you the path of the EXE as expected, but not the path that initiated the app as shown in this screenshot:

And now you can test it.

Any help will be appreciated!