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What happens if you right click on an application/program in Windows, and click "Print"? I accidentally almost did this when I right clicked a program icon to open from the desktop, but accidentally clicked "Print". I closed out before proceeding. I am very curious if it would do anything bad, or maybe just print the icon, but am wary to try it on my own system :-). I am asking here because if it does do something bad, admins may want to be aware of any negative effects that could happen. I did a Google search and didn't see anything helpful.

Jonathan
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A program (exe file) wouldn't have a "Print" option when right clicked. So you may be mixing the stuff you right clicked?

Ümit Yayla
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Nothing happens. Its weird that you got that option i have Never seen it before. You must of right clicked a logo of a application or you must of right clicked a word doc and hit print. Anyways thats how you learn how to do stuff through trial and error.

Eric
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If the program supports the "Print" verb and told this to Windows Explorer, Windows will show you the "Print" option in the context menu when you right-click on a file/shortcut supported by the program.

Basically, Windows starts a specific command to tell the program that the user wants to print this document. For example, if it's a Word document, you can find the Print command definition here in the registry:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell\Print\command

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE" /i "%1"

You can learn more about this implementation here: https://docs.microsoft.com/fr-fr/windows/desktop/shell/context-menu-handlers#completing-verb-implementation-tasks

Note that if you select more than 15 documents, the print command won't be available to prevent any "problems".

Swisstone
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  • Yes, but under what circumstances will an .exe file have a Print option in its right-click menu? – Harry Johnston Jul 01 '19 at 21:24
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    Probably because "something" added the Print verb on executable files, look here: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shell\Print If the Print key exists, you can check which command is started (if any) – Swisstone Jul 02 '19 at 09:29