I'm looking to have windows recognize that certain folders are associated to my application - maybe by naming the folder 'folder.myExt'.
Can this be done via the registry?
A bit more info
- This is for a x-platform app ( that's why I suggested the folder with an extension - mac can handle that )
- The RAD I'm using doesn't read write binary data efficiently enough as the size of this 'folder' will be upwards of 2000 files and 500Mb
You can have an "extension" on your folder, but as far as I know, windows just treats it all as the folder name and opens the folder like normal when you click on it.
The few times I messed with opening a .app on my windows system, it acted like it was a normal folder.
Folders in Windows aren't subject to the name.extension rules at all, there's only 1 entry in the registry's file type handling for "folder" types. (If you try to change it you're going to have very, very rough times ahead)
The only simple way to get the effect you're after would be to do what OpenOffice, MS Office 2007, and large video games have been doing for some time, use a ZIP file for a container. (It doesn't have to be a "ZIP" exactly, but some type of readily available container file type is better than writing your own) Like OO.org and Office 2K7 you can just use a custom extension and designate your app as the handler. This will also work on Macs, so it can be cross-platform. It may not be fast however. Using low or no compression may help with that.