Problem debugging shell extension in Vista (IShellFolder)

Hi,

I have created a Windows Shell Extension using ATL (Visual Studio 2008). It has the following modules and each module is a separate ATL Simple Object with its own .rgs file for registration:-

IShellFolder/IShellView -> For a virtual drive in windows explorer
IContextMenu/IShellExtInit -> For a popup menu files and folders
IShellIconOverlayIdentifier - To display overlay icons on files and folders
IShellPropSheetExt/IShellExtInit -> For a custom property page in File & Folder's properties

The above work fine in WinXP and I am able to debug this shell extension in WinXP. But a soon as I switch to Vista, I only get method calls for (2) and (4). The drive gets created in Windows Explorer but the underlying methods are not called when I click it. Although when I right click I get called for (2) and when I select "Properties" for a file or folder I get into the code for (4).

Is there some interface that I am missing for (1) and (3) on Vista. I could not find full and detailed documentation on writing Shell Extensions for Vista on MSDN. I had already gone through the CodeProject articles on shell extensions.

I could not quite get the solution right. I included the verclsid.exe in the firewall's "Allowed" list but when I start debugging, it shows 'explorer.exe': Loaded '...\Debug\ShellExtension.dll''explorer.exe': Unloaded '...\Debug\ShellExtension.dll'And the breakpoint is not hit

A9S6 2009-03-08 19:00:27

It has nothing to do with a firewall. Unless you do some network stuff in your dll init function (which you *never* should do).the "(un)loaded" lines in the debug window don't help here. You can check in your init functions in which process the dll is loaded.

Stefan 2009-03-09 06:58:53

I apologise for the late reply, I was away.By Init function, do you mean dllmain()? In there, I am not doing much::CoInitialize(NULL);if (dwReason == DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH){_AtlModule.Init();::DisableThreadLibraryCalls(hInstance);}hInstance;return _AtlModule.DllMain(dwReason, lpReserved);

A9S6 2009-03-12 08:26:35

I doubt if IShellFolder and IPersistFolder are the only interfaces that needs to implemented in Vista. There might be another *required* interface

A9S6 2009-03-12 08:27:51

Not just dllmain - verclsid also does some testing on QueryInterface() and depending on what extension it is also on some other interfaces.And no: Vista does not require any interface to be implemented that wasn't on XP.

Stefan 2009-03-12 09:04:14

Where can I find this QueryInterface() initialization?

A9S6 2009-03-12 10:51:19

QueryInterface is part of the IUnknown interface

Stefan 2009-03-12 13:50:01

ya but I could not find the implementation.

A9S6 2009-03-12 15:02:54

There was a nice site on Shell programming - ShellRevealed. The site has been shut down but you can find some articles in the web archive. See this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1237174/where-is-shellrevealed

A9S6 2010-09-23 04:46:19

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

Problem debugging shell extension in Vista (IShellFolder)

related questions