Styjun

My question is: How do I add a windows context menu item for a specific application, not globally?

Quick Brief:
We use Access (groan) for our CRM system. We use a basic 'copy to local' process for multi-access. I have written a C# 'launcher' of which handles this much better than a .bat file (they click the launcher, the launcher downloads the db, launches the db and quits). I also currently use a C# console application to handle development, automating stuff like incrementing version number, moving files around etc.

My Question/Goal:
I want to combine the two programs into one but I don't want to hinder the launcher from it's main purpose by jarring the user asking if they want to develop or not. I use this launcher too as I am primarily an estimator, hence wanting to combine the two. I have read that you can add context menu items to Windows as a whole, but I want to be able to add a launch option into the context menu just for this application. i.e. right click on program, normal menu options but with the addition of "Development Mode", this opens the program with arguments that I can use to open the development window/console instead.

Things to note:

• I have played around with holding a key on start but it can be vague when to press the key. Too early - you will end up typing "r" several times into the active window, too late - and it will miss the capture point.


• I have also looked at having a button on the launcher that gives you the option to go into dev mode, but the launcher is only open for around a second so its really easy to miss.

Thanks in advance

EDIT: The launcher is made and run as a click-once app.

I dont really know about whether its possible to have a custom context for a specific program, as far as i know the context works with the extension. That being said, i think there are better ways to handle your problem. Have a look at this

 static void Main(string[] args)
 
 /* here normal flow of the launcher*/

 if (args[0] == "-dev")
 
 /*here de developer mode*/
 Console.WriteLine("Developer mode activated");
 
 

The way to use it is simple, you make a shorcut, and where it says the shorcut target you will have something like this "C:Users****Documentsvisual studio 2017ProjectsTestTestbinDebugTest.exe" and you should change it to something like this "C:Users****Documentsvisual studio 2017ProjectsTestTestbinDebugTest.exe" -dev

As per a suggestion in a comment, that has gone for some reason. I am going to revert to keypress but use shift instead or "R".

Failing this, or if it causes problems it will look at creating a global context menu item for all programs, and just won't click it when I don't need to

Further to this I stumbled upon some code to make this work. Hopefully this will help someone in the future. I am doing this in WPF, but I am sure you could probably adapt this code to work elsewhere.

1) App.xaml - Adding the JumpList action

After (not inside) the Application.Resources property add the following and change to your liking (There are a lot of properties I haven't used for development sake, check out the link to learn more):

<Application.Resources>
...
</Application.Resources>
<JumpList.JumpList>
 <JumpList ShowRecentCategory="False"
 ShowFrequentCategory="False">
 <JumpTask Title="Open Dev Mode" 
 Description="Use this to enter dev mode (admins only)"
 Arguments="DevMode:true"/>
 </JumpList>
</JumpList.JumpList>

This will create a "Task" in the jump list:

2) Create Global static class - this will allow you to store the variable for later use in other forms.

public static class Global

 public static Boolean DevMode = false;

3) App.xaml.cs - Adding OnStartup handler

Inside the App class create an override method for OnStartup

public partial class App : Application

 protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
 
 Global.DevMode = Boolean.Parse(e.Args.FirstOrDefault().ToString().Split(':')[1]);
 

4) Read the variable in your form using Global.DevMode

private void Window_ContentRendered(object sender, EventArgs e)

 if (Global.DevMode) RunYourDevScript();