Per-user shell context menu extensions?

Vista has broken the ability of applications (eg. WinZip), without elevated
privilege, to add themselves to Explorer's context menus. On previous
versions of Windows, they could do that by writing an entry in the registry
to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.

Does Vista use an alternative registry location for such entries, that only
apply to the current user, so that no elevation is required?

Thanks!

This was never possible without elevated permissions. HKCR (more correctly,
HKLM\Software\Classes) has always been restricted to administrators as far as
I know. Vista only makes that more obvious because people can actually use
Vista as a non-admin.

HKLM\Software\Classes cannot be virtualized, and I don't think there is
another place to put that data that would be merged, so no, sorry.

"Keith MacDonald" wrote:

> Vista has broken the ability of applications (eg. WinZip), without elevated
> privilege, to add themselves to Explorer's context menus. On previous
> versions of Windows, they could do that by writing an entry in the registry
> to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
>
> Does Vista use an alternative registry location for such entries, that only
> apply to the current user, so that no elevation is required?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>

That's a pity. If Microsoft are going to put us in a sandbox, they at least
ought to allow us to play. It's a design mistake to assume that all users
of a given PC will want to customize their shell the same way.

"Jesper" <Jesper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:19F89928-0F0A-407D-9C65-CF287E13989A@microsoft.com...
> This was never possible without elevated permissions. HKCR (more
> correctly,
> HKLM\Software\Classes) has always been restricted to administrators as far
> as
> I know. Vista only makes that more obvious because people can actually use
> Vista as a non-admin.
>
> HKLM\Software\Classes cannot be virtualized, and I don't think there is
> another place to put that data that would be merged, so no, sorry.
>
> "Keith MacDonald" wrote:
>
>> Vista has broken the ability of applications (eg. WinZip), without
>> elevated
>> privilege, to add themselves to Explorer's context menus. On previous
>> versions of Windows, they could do that by writing an entry in the
>> registry
>> to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
>>
>> Does Vista use an alternative registry location for such entries, that
>> only
>> apply to the current user, so that no elevation is required?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>>

Could be, but I think the reality is that most users do not customize their
shell at all.

Sometimes I miss Unix ability to put any shell you want on a system though.

"Keith MacDonald" wrote:

> That's a pity. If Microsoft are going to put us in a sandbox, they at least
> ought to allow us to play. It's a design mistake to assume that all users
> of a given PC will want to customize their shell the same way.
>
> "Jesper" <Jesper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:19F89928-0F0A-407D-9C65-CF287E13989A@microsoft.com...
> > This was never possible without elevated permissions. HKCR (more
> > correctly,
> > HKLM\Software\Classes) has always been restricted to administrators as far
> > as
> > I know. Vista only makes that more obvious because people can actually use
> > Vista as a non-admin.
> >
> > HKLM\Software\Classes cannot be virtualized, and I don't think there is
> > another place to put that data that would be merged, so no, sorry.
> >
> > "Keith MacDonald" wrote:
> >
> >> Vista has broken the ability of applications (eg. WinZip), without
> >> elevated
> >> privilege, to add themselves to Explorer's context menus. On previous
> >> versions of Windows, they could do that by writing an entry in the
> >> registry
> >> to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
> >>
> >> Does Vista use an alternative registry location for such entries, that
> >> only
> >> apply to the current user, so that no elevation is required?
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>

As far as I know HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is a merge of
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.
So I would have though that the desired keys could be added to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes {which each user has write access to} to
get the desired per-user effect.

Note, I'm not an expert on shell context menus, so forgive me if this is a
blind alley ...

Dave Wood

"Keith MacDonald" <nospam@parasites.com> wrote in message
news:urERDcXOHHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> That's a pity. If Microsoft are going to put us in a sandbox, they at
> least ought to allow us to play. It's a design mistake to assume that all
> users of a given PC will want to customize their shell the same way.
>
> "Jesper" <Jesper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:19F89928-0F0A-407D-9C65-CF287E13989A@microsoft.com...
>> This was never possible without elevated permissions. HKCR (more
>> correctly,
>> HKLM\Software\Classes) has always been restricted to administrators as
>> far as
>> I know. Vista only makes that more obvious because people can actually
>> use
>> Vista as a non-admin.
>>
>> HKLM\Software\Classes cannot be virtualized, and I don't think there is
>> another place to put that data that would be merged, so no, sorry.
>>
>> "Keith MacDonald" wrote:
>>
>>> Vista has broken the ability of applications (eg. WinZip), without
>>> elevated
>>> privilege, to add themselves to Explorer's context menus. On previous
>>> versions of Windows, they could do that by writing an entry in the
>>> registry
>>> to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
>>>
>>> Does Vista use an alternative registry location for such entries, that
>>> only
>>> apply to the current user, so that no elevation is required?
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>

Good thought. According to MSDN that should work:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms724498.aspx.

Be worth a try anyway.

"Dave Wood [MS]" wrote:

> As far as I know HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is a merge of
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes.
> So I would have though that the desired keys could be added to
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes {which each user has write access to} to
> get the desired per-user effect.
>
> Note, I'm not an expert on shell context menus, so forgive me if this is a
> blind alley ...
>
> Dave Wood
>
> "Keith MacDonald" <nospam@parasites.com> wrote in message
> news:urERDcXOHHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> > That's a pity. If Microsoft are going to put us in a sandbox, they at
> > least ought to allow us to play. It's a design mistake to assume that all
> > users of a given PC will want to customize their shell the same way.
> >
> > "Jesper" <Jesper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:19F89928-0F0A-407D-9C65-CF287E13989A@microsoft.com...
> >> This was never possible without elevated permissions. HKCR (more
> >> correctly,
> >> HKLM\Software\Classes) has always been restricted to administrators as
> >> far as
> >> I know. Vista only makes that more obvious because people can actually
> >> use
> >> Vista as a non-admin.
> >>
> >> HKLM\Software\Classes cannot be virtualized, and I don't think there is
> >> another place to put that data that would be merged, so no, sorry.
> >>
> >> "Keith MacDonald" wrote:
> >>
> >>> Vista has broken the ability of applications (eg. WinZip), without
> >>> elevated
> >>> privilege, to add themselves to Explorer's context menus. On previous
> >>> versions of Windows, they could do that by writing an entry in the
> >>> registry
> >>> to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
> >>>
> >>> Does Vista use an alternative registry location for such entries, that
> >>> only
> >>> apply to the current user, so that no elevation is required?
> >>>
> >>> Thanks!
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >
> >
>
>

Dave, you're more of an expert than you think! That works, so many thanks
for suggesting it.

- Keith

"Dave Wood [MS]" <davewood@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:eZ9m3VaOHHA.448@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> As far as I know HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT is a merge of
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes and
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes. So I would have though that the
> desired keys could be added to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes {which
> each user has write access to} to get the desired per-user effect.
>
> Note, I'm not an expert on shell context menus, so forgive me if this is a
> blind alley ...
>
> Dave Wood
>
> "Keith MacDonald" <nospam@parasites.com> wrote in message
> news:urERDcXOHHA.3916@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> That's a pity. If Microsoft are going to put us in a sandbox, they at
>> least ought to allow us to play. It's a design mistake to assume that
>> all users of a given PC will want to customize their shell the same way.
>>
>> "Jesper" <Jesper@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:19F89928-0F0A-407D-9C65-CF287E13989A@microsoft.com...
>>> This was never possible without elevated permissions. HKCR (more
>>> correctly,
>>> HKLM\Software\Classes) has always been restricted to administrators as
>>> far as
>>> I know. Vista only makes that more obvious because people can actually
>>> use
>>> Vista as a non-admin.
>>>
>>> HKLM\Software\Classes cannot be virtualized, and I don't think there is
>>> another place to put that data that would be merged, so no, sorry.
>>>
>>> "Keith MacDonald" wrote:
>>>
>>>> Vista has broken the ability of applications (eg. WinZip), without
>>>> elevated
>>>> privilege, to add themselves to Explorer's context menus. On previous
>>>> versions of Windows, they could do that by writing an entry in the
>>>> registry
>>>> to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
>>>>
>>>> Does Vista use an alternative registry location for such entries, that
>>>> only
>>>> apply to the current user, so that no elevation is required?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>>
>