FastExplorer: Create your own Context Menu Items (Freeware)

[app103]

Oh, and I almost forgot, I also have a vintage version of 12 ghosts just to get "copy file name" and "copy path" ...

-cathodera (May 05, 2008, 03:40 AM)

I just use HPathCopyShExt to do that. I like how nice & neat it is and doesn't make a big mess out of the menu.

It doesn't have an installer, so you have to manually install the .dll yourself. Read the instructions carefully.
The developer has other cool tools on that page, too   

And just like you, I don't need any more background processes running and I don't have the resources for it on the older pc.

[cathodera]

Hm. Thanks for telling me about that! I am thinking of changing to it and that one whose link I can't remember for save directory list, which is my only 12 ghosts-havin' reason that HPathCopyShExt is missing.

Technically, it would be installing 2 things to replace one, but the two things together would be so much smaller.

The absurd but not quite delicious irony of my current agenda is that on my rustic old squirrel-powered machine, I never even attempted to reduce things. On the contrary, I was the poster child for pathological software hoarding and downloading promiscuity, it is only now that I have this modern screamin monster truck of a puter (that will be rustic and squirrel-powered in a year) that I have become so determined to be coy and hard-to-get.

But this site continues to slice up and make sandwiches of that determination. Just today, a quick perusal to some of the "best of 2007 links" resulted in my installing 2 or 3 more Firefox extensions, none of which I can justify on anything close to grounds of real and demonstrable need. To my credit, I already disabled one - a behemoth of a thing that turns Gmail into an adrive alternative, and lets you click about 5 times just so you can play a song that you stored on your Gmail-linked adrive clone, instead of just reaching down into a43 and clicking the song once.

It's a sickness, I tell you! A sickness!

[Edvard]

I have probably mentioned it before, PCMag's ContextEdit does both and does it well.
Although I have found that XP doesn't like to pay attention to my changes 
I'll give FastExplorer a try, and eagerly await the day when it can remove items as well.

[dalchina]

I've tried Fastexplorer, and a few other tools, but there's one thing I want to do I can't see any way to do... maybe you know!

Start, Programs, ..the start menu expands. Right click on a 'Folder' (technically 'File Folder' in context menu terms if I recall). So you know the drill... explore, explore all users etc.

I'd like to add a context menu allowing a different file manager here to open in the same way as explorer. Why?

There are some apps out there that, when installed, prevent those options working. Inhibit their (new) context menu entries (Shellexview eg) and- lo and behold- explore/explore all users works again.

As it happens, Filemenu tools (mentioned above) is one such 'culprit'. The author blames XP. (From Dopus, the team commented in this area MS seemed to have broken its own rules).

So, if I want a 'rogue?' context menu entry to remain,  I lose the convenience of right click explore on expanded start menu folders.

Any ideas? (BTW, these entries are not ordinary CM reg entries, so suggesting 'find it in the registry' has not proved useful so far, unless you specifically know...

Thanks, dal987

[Second Shadow]

I've written about this before.. It's a very strange sad feeling as a programmer when you find that someone else has coded a program you wanted to write, and done a good job, leaving you with no real reason to write your program, but still the lingering urge to do so.   But with so many program ideas floating around, it just seems a waste to write something that already exists.

-mouser (May 01, 2008, 06:52 PM)

Hi, mouser, I understand your feelings, altough I'm no programmer myself.
I don't post often in the forum but I usually read it, at least on a newsletter-ly basis
When I read that you're considering not developing ContextMenu Commander, I couldn't refrain from thinking: "It'd be SO great if instead he could develop some sort of (donationware) alternative to Right Click Commander"
RCC is a great little program that allows you to navigate the directory structure via context menu, but I have a feeling that it's not being developed anymore (last update is from 2004).

Maybe you can take a look at it and tell us if it's even possible or not. I understand that the features of the two programs are very different and they have very little in common, except a similar name (ContextMenu Commander - Right Click Commander), and also that you have a lot of other projects to take care of, but I decided to drop this idea, just in case

[azza]

Currently I use a program called OpenExpert (http://www.baxbex.com/openexpert.html) to do this.
It looks like FastExplorer is more fully featured though, so I'll have to check it out.

[Alex Yakovlev]

Just to warm up the topic:
Fast Explorer 2008 3.1.11.430
Fast Explorer Context Menu Extension DLL v3.1.11.190
are finally out and ready to download from:
http://thesoftpro.tr...od.com/downloads/fe/

List of changes:

• added support for perceived types (introduced in Windows XP) including a set of predefined PerceivedTypes: Image, Text, Audio, Video, Compressed and System;
• copy and paste for static and dynamic menu items;
• relaxed user priveleges for using of Fast Explorer Context Menu Extension DLL: administrative rights on local machine are required to edit, enable and disable dynamic menu items. Regular users can enjoy installed context menu items;
• updated installer to NSIS v2.39;
• fix: Windows Registration Server (regsvr32.exe) crashes after enabling or disabling dynamic menu items;
• fix: accidental crash on pressing Win+E or right clicking on My Computer;
• fix: incorrect reporting of Windows Server 2008 in the About box;
• fix: dynamic menu items didn't appear if the access to the Internet is restricted for Verclsid.exe;
• fix: crash on click on the Parameters label on the Submenu Items tab;
• fix: crash on pressing F1 when a context menu is shown.

As usual, English, French and Russian localizations are built in. Japan localization is coming (hopefully  ).
Enjoy.

[TaoPhoenix]

I've written about this before.. It's a very strange sad feeling as a programmer when you find that someone else has coded a program you wanted to write, and done a good job, leaving you with no real reason to write your program, but still the lingering urge to do so.   But with so many program ideas floating around, it just seems a waste to write something that already exists.

-mouser (May 01, 2008, 06:52 PM)

Sorry to Zombify a thread, but I couldn't help noticing the tone - how about when the original developer abandons their pages and moves on? That original page is coming up 404. Looks like there are legacy copies floating around in bundles and download aggregators, but does that change anything about the urge to write these kinds of programs?

[db90h]

Be VERY CAREFUL with some of these older tools in Vista and above. I don't feel like elaborating more, but it's true. Check the last update time of any software you try. ESPECIALLY shell extensions that might get mapped into every process on your system. Can cause crashes in random processes. The link in the original post of this thread is broken, maybe due to its age.

I also agree with the last poster.. you speak of not reinventing the wheel, but for abandoned applications, it's all wide open.

Note 2 posts up is 3.5 years old.