Property handler shell extension

Question

Does anybody know how to implement property handler shell extension? I'm interested mainly in .NET implementation.

Answer 1

You should not write a shell extension in .net. .net requires the runtime to be loaded into every process loading the shell extension. And that are many since for example the open/close file dialogs use the shell.

This leads to versioning problems since you can't load .net 1 and 2 in the same process. And it wastes resources too.

A workaround is writing the shell extension in native code and using a helper process written in .net.

See Raymond Chen's blog: Do not write in-process shell extensions in managed code