Explorer Shell Context Menu

Jpmon1, 27 May 2008

Add the Windows Explorer Shell Context Menu to your application

Introduction

I am currently working on an Advanced text editor, and I was looking for a way to implement the Window's shell context menu in my code. I came across Andreas Johansson's WebLog which provided me with the answer. He took some of the code that Steven Roebert created and placed it in one file for ease of use. His code had several errors that were easily corrected, and now I am posting the finished product.

Using the Code

The code is pretty straightforward to use:

Add the ShellContextMenu.cs file to your project.
Create a new instance of the ShellContextMenu class.
Call the ShowContextMenu method with the proper arguments.
1. FileInfo/DirectoryInfo Array - A list of files/directories that need the Context Menu
2. Point - Point to Display Context Menu

// Sample code

ShellContextMenu ctxMnu = new ShellContextMenu();
FileInfo[] arrFI = new FileInfo[1];
arrFI[0] = new FileInfo(this.treeMain.SelectedNode.Tag.ToString());
ctxMnu.ShowContextMenu(arrFI, this.PointToScreen(new Point(e.X, e.Y)));

History

12/10/07 - Created article
27/05/08 - Cleaned code a bit

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

Jpmon1

	Software Developer Halliburton
	United States

Jon Likes to Code.
learnto.seekdeepwithin.com
seekdeepwithin.com

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Comments and Discussions

Moving files blocks UI

davidcole10-Feb-14 5:53

davidcole

10-Feb-14 5:53

If I use it for moving files in my projects, UI is blocked for the length of the operation.

Problem with drive

davidcole30-Dec-13 14:12

davidcole

30-Dec-13 14:12

This does not open ShellContextMenu,

arrFI[0] = new FileInfo(@"c:\");
ShellContextMenu menu = new ShellContextMenu();

My vote of 5

Mazen el Senih24-Sep-12 7:56

Mazen el Senih

24-Sep-12 7:56

Thanks a lot ,I've been searching for this like forever !!! Smile | :)

"Send to" menu visible but doesn't execute.

Roland Schneider 45122121-Dec-10 6:22

Roland Schneider 451221

21-Dec-10 6:22

Method ShellContextMenu.ShowContextMenu first calls User32.dll DestroyMenu then calls IContextMenu.InvokeCommand, using the menu id of the previous destroyed menu.

Changed the order of calls, then it worked.

private void ShowContextMenu(Point pointScreen)
{
    ...

        uint nSelected = TrackPopupMenuEx(
            pMenu,
            TPM.RETURNCMD,
            pointScreen.X,
            pointScreen.Y,
            this.Handle,
            IntPtr.Zero);

        // First invoke menu item, then destry menu.
        if (nSelected != 0)
        {
            InvokeCommand(_oContextMenu, nSelected, _strParentFolder, pointScreen);
        }

        DestroyMenu(pMenu);
        pMenu = IntPtr.Zero;

    ...
}

ShellContextMenu.InvokeContextMenuDefault does it in the right order.

Re: "Send to" menu visible but doesn't execute.

NuFox Hast23-Jul-12 1:04

NuFox Hast

23-Jul-12 1:04

This is a bug in author's code. I don't know how to fix it, but founded other code module/class for showing Explorer's context menu: Gong Solutions Shell Library. You should see source code of this project. It is really work!

Add my menu to shell context menu

Jen8915-Nov-10 4:28

Jen89

15-Nov-10 4:28

Could you please tell me how can I add one more personal option to the context menu?

I want to have smthng like "Add to..." and when the users click on it, i want to show a form created from me in the same solution... But I want to keep the rest of the shell menu..

Thank you in advance...

Re: Add my menu to shell context menu

NuFox Hast23-Jul-12 0:59

NuFox Hast

23-Jul-12 0:59

Paste this code after

pMenu = CreatePopupMenu();

                int nResult = _oContextMenu.QueryContextMenu(
                    pMenu,
                    0,
                    CMD_FIRST,
                    CMD_LAST,
                    CMF.EXPLORE |
                    CMF.NORMAL |
                    ((Control.ModifierKeys & Keys.Shift) != 0 ? CMF.EXTENDEDVERBS : 0));

in void ShowContextMenu(Point pointScreen) (ShellContextMenu.cs):

MENUITEMINFO mii = new MENUITEMINFO();
                mii.cbSize = Marshal.SizeOf(mii);
                mii.fMask = MIIM.STRING | MIIM.ID;
                mii.fState = MFS.DEFAULT;
                mii.fType = MFT.BYCOMMAND;
                mii.wID = 500; //Application-defined ID of menu item
                mii.dwItemData = IntPtr.Zero;
                mii.dwTypeData = "Your_Item_Name";
                //this function adds your item at the end of Context Menu
                InsertMenuItem(pMenu, (uint)(GetMenuItemCount(pMenu) + 1), true, ref mii);

You'll need API-functions' declaration:

// Inserts a new menu item at the specified position in a menu
        [DllImport("user32",
            SetLastError = true,
            CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        private static extern bool InsertMenuItem(
            IntPtr hMenu,
            uint uItem,
            bool fByPosition,
            ref MENUITEMINFO lpmii);

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        private static extern int GetMenuItemCount(IntPtr hMenu);

How to handle clicking your item:

//this code is already written in ShowContextMenu.cs
                //this API-function returns user selection
                uint nSelected = TrackPopupMenuEx(
                    pMenu,
                    TPM.RETURNCMD,
                    pointScreen.X,
                    pointScreen.Y,
                    this.Handle,
                    IntPtr.Zero);

                DestroyMenu(pMenu);
                pMenu = IntPtr.Zero;

                if (nSelected != 0)
                {
                    //nSelected contains ID of selected item
                    //check if user selected your item
                    if (nSelected == 500)
                        //doing anything
                    //user selected "system context menu" item
                    else
                        InvokeCommand(_oContextMenu, nSelected, _strParentFolder, pointScreen);
                }

modified 23-Jul-12 6:06am.

Re: Add my menu to shell context menu

Murdahl23-Jul-13 23:41

Murdahl

23-Jul-13 23:41

I have been playing a bit with the code but can't quite figure out how to place "my menu" items before / or on top of the explorer one? I figure it has something to do with the InsertMenuItem method? No matter what I set "uint" to be,
in example set to: (uint)(GetMenuItemCount(pMenu) + 1)
it still ends up last.

Could you maybe help me? I would be very grateful Smile | :)

Does not work on 64 bit

uhax10119-Jun-10 2:55

uhax101

19-Jun-10 2:55

Does not work correctly on Windows Server 2008 64 bit or Win7 64 bit (I suspect the same with Vista 64 bit)

Try bringing up the context menu a few times (right clicking a file) it works the first few times then falls over.

I can't get any useful debug information from it, all I know is its memory access violation.

Can anyone else test and try confirm, I am unable to find a working .Net Explorer Context menu that works under 64 bit.

modified on Saturday, June 19, 2010 9:07 AM

Re: Does not work on 64 bit

Roland Schneider 45122121-Dec-10 2:55

Roland Schneider 451221

21-Dec-10 2:55

For 64bit there is an unhandled overflow exception in WndProc which crashes the app.

Solution see http://www.codeproject.com/Messages/3541887/Re-Does-not-work-on-64-bit.aspx[^]

public static uint HiWord(IntPtr ptr)
{
    uint param32 = (uint)(ptr.ToInt64() & 0xffffffffL);
    if ((param32 & 0x80000000) == 0x80000000)
        return (param32 >> 16);
    else
        return (param32 >> 16) & 0xffff;
}

and

public static uint LoWord(IntPtr ptr)
{
    uint param32 = (uint)(ptr.ToInt64() & 0xffffffffL);
    return (param32 & 0xffff);
}

Re: Does not work on 64 bit

Member 1032848630-Jul-14 22:34

Member 10328486

30-Jul-14 22:34

I had same problem, but I changed

public static uint HiWord(IntPtr ptr)

public static long HiWord(IntPtr ptr)

And same for the LoWord function too

And its working perfectly

Some tweaks (drives, files and folders, desktop items)

MANSATAN29-Apr-10 12:28

MANSATAN

29-Apr-10 12:28

Excellent work, however i had to modify it for my evil purposes, the GetPIDLs overloads for DirectoryInfo and FileInfo were unnecessary and it made it not possible to get the menu of files and folders at the same time, i modified it to take string[] yet the drives menus where non functional so i added a check to GetParentFolder for drive paths to have parent folder "::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}" which is "My Computer"'s guid, and for desktop items like "My computer, My Documents, Desktop" i added an overload to ShowContextMenu and GetPIDLs that takes CSIDL that gets the PIDLs using SHGetSpecialFolderLocation, the rest of the CSIDL are quite useless so i just ignored them.

Re: Some tweaks (drives, files and folders, desktop items)

Member 795200327-May-11 20:18

Member 7952003

27-May-11 20:18

@mansatan
sorry, I speak English so badly that C#
would be nice if you give us the changes to uses directories and files
thank you in advance
(and thank you google for the translation,
which should not be great but better than this I could do)
@+

Re: Some tweaks (drives, files and folders, desktop items)

Jpmon131-May-11 5:00

Jpmon1

31-May-11 5:00

That does not seem to be too hard to do, I would just override:

public void ShowContextMenu

with parameters that accept a FileInfo array and a DirectoryInfo array.
If you look in the current ShowContextMenu methods, the method GetPIDLs is called for the DirectoryInfo and FileInfo arrays passed as parameters. Just call both for the directorys and files passed to your new method, and combine them in the _arrPIDLs array.

P.S. I did not test this, but it seems as though it should work. Smile | :)

Re: Some tweaks (drives, files and folders, desktop items)

matthew4392-Aug-11 9:58

matthew439

2-Aug-11 9:58

@mansatan or anyone
Your reply Here is over a year old,but I am hoping you or someone can show a little example of how to get this to work with drives. Smile | :)

Re: Some tweaks (drives, files and folders, desktop items)

davidcole22-Jan-14 12:57

davidcole

22-Jan-14 12:57

Hey, did you ever solver this for drives?

Re: Some tweaks (drives, files and folders, desktop items)

Colin Lamarre2-Mar-18 3:15

Colin Lamarre

2-Mar-18 3:15

I used the original FileBrowser to come up with this:

private IShellFolder GetRootFolder()
{
    IntPtr folderEnumPtr = IntPtr.Zero;
    IEnumIDList folderEnum = null;
    IntPtr pidlSubItem;
    int celtFetched;
    IntPtr winHandle = IntPtr.Zero;
    IShellFolder oParentFolder = null;

    SHCONTF folderFlag =
        SHCONTF.FOLDERS |
        SHCONTF.INCLUDEHIDDEN;

    IntPtr tempPidl;
    SHFILEINFO info;

    if (_oRootFolder == null)
    {
        //My Computer
        info = new SHFILEINFO();
        tempPidl = IntPtr.Zero;
        SHGetSpecialFolderLocation(IntPtr.Zero, CSIDL.DRIVES, out tempPidl);

        SHGetFileInfo(tempPidl, 0, ref info, cbFileInfo, SHGFI.PIDL | SHGFI.DISPLAYNAME | SHGFI.TYPENAME);

        string sysfolderName = info.szTypeName;
        string mycompName = info.szDisplayName;

        try
        {
            oParentFolder = GetDesktopFolder();

            if (oParentFolder.EnumObjects(winHandle, folderFlag, out folderEnumPtr) == S_OK)
            {
                folderEnum = (IEnumIDList)Marshal.GetTypedObjectForIUnknown(folderEnumPtr, typeof(IEnumIDList));
                while (folderEnum.Next(1, out pidlSubItem, out celtFetched) == S_OK && celtFetched == 1)
                {
                    IntPtr shellFolderPtr;
                    if (oParentFolder.BindToObject(
                                pidlSubItem,
                                IntPtr.Zero,
                                ref IID_IShellFolder,
                                out shellFolderPtr) == S_OK)
                    {
                        IntPtr strr = Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem(MAX_PATH * 2 + 4);
                        Marshal.WriteInt32(strr, 0, 0);
                        StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder(MAX_PATH);

                        string txt = "";
                        if (oParentFolder.GetDisplayNameOf(
                                        pidlSubItem,
                                        SHGNO.INFOLDER,
                                        strr) == S_OK)
                        {
                            StrRetToBuf(strr, pidlSubItem, buf, MAX_PATH);
                            txt = buf.ToString();
                        }

                        Marshal.FreeCoTaskMem(strr);

                        if (txt == mycompName)
                        {
                            _oRootFolder = (IShellFolder)Marshal.GetTypedObjectForIUnknown(shellFolderPtr, typeof(IShellFolder));
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
        }
        finally
        {
            if (folderEnum != null)
            {
                Marshal.ReleaseComObject(folderEnum);
                Marshal.Release(folderEnumPtr);
            }
        }
    }

    return _oRootFolder;
}

so if Parent is null then use that like this:

if (arrFI[n].Parent == null)
    oParentFolder = GetRootFolder();
else
...

modified 2-Mar-18 8:30am.

Re: Some tweaks (drives, files and folders, desktop items)

fabricedupre@free.fr9-Mar-16 10:30

fabricedupre@free.fr

9-Mar-16 10:30

Hello,

Can you please post your code here ?

not good on win 7

so0_lanhlung228-Feb-10 18:27

so0_lanhlung2

28-Feb-10 18:27

i use this Shell ContextMenu but i can't use Send to of it,Please Help me
sorry if my english is not good

Great!

Jose Menendez Póo27-May-08 11:19

Jose Menendez Póo

27-May-08 11:19

Good to know this trick.
Thanks!

Great, but needs a bit tweaking

ZeroXX24-Mar-08 13:08

ZeroXX

24-Mar-08 13:08

This is really great, looking forward to use it, only problem is that it can't handle every situation, like it states, files / folders need to be in the same location, and only one type of object can be passed onto it at a time.
Keep up the good work.

Re: Great, but needs a bit tweaking

seguso20-Aug-09 8:48

seguso

20-Aug-09 8:48

Does someone know how to handle the first limitation (that the files need to be in the same folder) ? Thanks D'Oh! | :doh:

Re: Great, but needs a bit tweaking

MANSATAN29-Apr-10 12:35

MANSATAN

29-Apr-10 12:35

http://www.zabkat.com/blog/08Jul07.htm[^]

enjoy Cool | :cool:

Re: Great, but needs a bit tweaking

Colin Lamarre1-Mar-18 20:46

Colin Lamarre

1-Mar-18 20:46

did not enjoy mansatan lol, that's some C++ tips, has anyone been able to take zabkat's tips and port to C#? if ur looking for a challenge that might be a good one!

Short and Sweet

The_Mega_ZZTer10-Dec-07 17:39

The_Mega_ZZTer

10-Dec-07 17:39

I've been looking for articles relating to shell folder things like this, and this is part of what I'm looking for. Very simple implementation and execution that covers what I would need it to do nicely.

I was going to use a more thorough source code sample for my research into mimicking a Vista Explorer-esque interface in .NET, but your code should be a nice and simple alternative for me to look at as well! Thanks!

I was disappointed when I saw you haven't written any other articles. I'll be sure to check them out when you do. Smile | :)

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