Hooking scripts to context menu items in windows explorer

pht has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello, this is actually two questions is one post:

1. I understand that I can edit the windows registry (somewhere in hkey_classes) to create a single explorer context menu item that can launch my perl script. Is there a way to create context item with sumbenus or icons - sort of like winzip or 7zip has? I'm thinking that this requires some dll trickery, that is beyond my understanding - is something like that possible with perl?

2. Suppose I create that single menu item that launches my script (thru the registry). When I select multiple files in explorer and select the context menu item, it launches multiple instances of my script, each for one file. What should I do to drive all the arguments into one instance of my program (again, like the zip thingies do)? I have worked around that by putting my script in the "Send To" folder in the past, but that one has also its drawbacks.

Comment on Hooking scripts to context menu items in windows explorer

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Re: Hooking scripts to context menu items in windows explorer by cdarke (Prior) on Oct 08, 2008 at 08:52 UTC
Background info in http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc144171(VS.85).aspx. A quick scan of CPAN didn't come up with anything, so maybe that is an opportunity ;-)	[reply]
Re^2: Hooking scripts to context menu items in windows explorer by pht (Acolyte) on Oct 08, 2008 at 09:41 UTC
urgh, that looks exactly like the dll trickery. any ideas how to do it with perl? or about embedding perl classes into dlls?	[reply]
Re^3: Hooking scripts to context menu items in windows explorer by cdarke (Prior) on Oct 08, 2008 at 11:07 UTC
The only way I know of is to write it in XS - yep, DLL trickery.	[reply]
Re: Hooking scripts to context menu items in windows explorer by ikegami (Patriarch) on Oct 08, 2008 at 08:56 UTC
Not quite what you asked, you can get almost what you want by putting a shortcut to your script in `C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\SendTo`. Does `C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\SendTo` also get checked? Gotta run, no time to test.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Hooking scripts to context menu items in windows explorer by pht (Acolyte) on Oct 08, 2008 at 09:35 UTC
Nope, putting it in All Users does not work. As I said, I know about the Send To alternative, though it has its disadvantages - that's extra click and a limit on the number of arguments passed to the script ...	[reply]