Member Avatar for mohan.jce

i have been looking around and its hard to find what i want. I am able to add context menu item to a FOLDER by doing this:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Command] @="TestRightClick:"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\Command\Command] @="myExe.exe %1"

I need to have "context menu for all the files in folders of a particular directory". context menu should be available only when i right click files under a particular directory. (for example on files of folder D:\folder\sub_folder)?

can this be achieved through Python or registry edit? read somewhere that this can be achieved through IShellExtInit interface. is there any python package to support this interface?

Thanks

  • 1 Contributor
  • 1 Reply
  • 256 Views
  • 22 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by mohan.jce

Dani AI

Generated

Short answer: for Windows 7 and later the simplest, safest path is to use the registry’s conditional-show feature (the AppliesTo value) so Explorer will show a static verb only for items that match an Advanced Query Syntax (AQS) expression. That avoids writing any COM/IShellExtInit code and will let you limit a command to files under a particular path or with other property-based tests. (learn.microsoft.com)

Clarifying a gap in the thread: HKCR\Directory\shell registers verbs for folders (what you tried in Post #1). To target files you normally register under HKCR\*\shell (or under a specific ProgID). Use AppliesTo with a property such as the file path/folder properties exposed to AQS (for example the System.* properties) and experiment — AQS has specific operators and escaping rules so small trial-and-error queries are normal. If AppliesTo seems not to take effect, verify the property name, quoting/escaping and test with a simpler query first. (learn.microsoft.com)

When AQS cannot express your rule (for example: “only show the verb if the parent folder contains X files” or very custom logic) you need a dynamic handler (IShellExtInit + IContextMenu). That requires an in-process COM DLL; Microsoft warns about loading heavy runtimes inside Explorer, so using Python as an in-process extension is risky and unsupported — the usual options are a small native shim DLL that forwards to an out‑of‑process Python helper, or writing the extension in native code. If you still want to explore Python tooling, pywin32 and comtypes let you build COM servers (usually as out‑of‑process/local servers), but be careful about bitness and Explorer process constraints. (learn.microsoft.com)

Practical next steps: try a minimal AppliesTo filter first (works on Windows 7+), check the AQS docs for the exact property names/operators, and only move to COM if AQS cannot express your policy — in that case prefer a native shim + out‑of‑process Python helper to avoid destabilizing Explorer. (learn.microsoft.com)

Member Avatar for mohan.jce

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\NetBeans]
"AppliesTo"="System.ItemPathDisplay:\"NetBeansProjects\""
@="Open with NetBeans"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\NetBeans\command]
@="\"C:\Program Files\NetBeans 7.2.1\bin\netbeans64.exe\" --open \"%1\""

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.