http://blogs.msdn.com/jamesfi/archive/tags/explorer/default.aspxTags: exploreren-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)http://blogs.msdn.com/jamesfi/archive/2007/08/10/installing-shell-extensions-please-complain-here.aspxSat, 11 Aug 2007 04:02:00 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:4328374jamesfinnigan9http://blogs.msdn.com/jamesfi/comments/4328374.aspxhttp://blogs.msdn.com/jamesfi/commentrss.aspx?PostID=4328374http://blogs.msdn.com/jamesfi/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=4328374<P>So... I've been looking more closely at Wix and I think I'm going to build some custom actions to do a really good job installing shell extensions.&nbsp; Which ones do you find most problematic?&nbsp; I realize this is a bit of a change of pace for the blog, so I'll probably hit a few other forums, but please feel free to add comments/complaints about which extensions are problematic.</P> <P>Maybe you've already done the work to install these properly, but in some cases that can be quite complicated and I could see a lot of folks just accepting some minor bugs and moving on.</P> <P><STRONG>I'll start: </STRONG></P> <P>Protocol Handlers (<A href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266527.aspx" mce_href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266527.aspx">http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb266527.aspx</A>)&nbsp;and Schema Extensions (<A href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms647576.aspx" mce_href="http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms647576.aspx">http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms647576.aspx</A>).&nbsp; Both of these <EM>require</EM> custom actions to be installed correctly - and there's no standard for it so everyone is probably doing it themselves which is going to lead to some really inconsistent behavior.&nbsp; None of that is going to help system stability at all.</P> <P>Another one I came across recently was installing a shell folder that should appear on the desktop.&nbsp; I added it to the desktop namespace but until the user refreshes the desktop it isn't going to appear.&nbsp; You need to send a SHChangeNotify to get it to show up without user intervention.&nbsp; Anyway, there's no standard action for that.&nbsp; So unless you can accept a shortcut to the shell folder (which sends a notification), you'll want a CA there as well.&nbsp; And there again, you want to send as minimal a notification as possible to avoid having the system reload everything when all that you needed is a new icon to show up.</P> <P>File Associations:<BR>This one is going to be a bit of a laundry list of issues, but I'll start off the first couple issues.</P> <OL> <LI>If previous handlers didn't register under openwith then your registration may blow away any record that they wanted to handle that file association.</LI> <LI>If you register under a meta-type like TXTFile and then someone else claims .txt then you don't get invoked at all.</LI> <LI>Man that thing is complicated.&nbsp; Way, way complicated. (I'm still learning the subtleties - feel free to correct me if I miss a beat.)</LI></OL> <P>So there's a start - let me know&nbsp;as you come across other issues.</P> <P>Cheers,<BR>James</P> <P mce_keep="true">&nbsp;</P><img src="http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=4328374" width="1" height="1">shellSetupWixinstallMSIexplorer