Way to get IShellExtInit to work out-of-process

Question

I'd like to pass an IShellItemArray to an out-of-process COM object residing within an exe. I'd prefer to use existing interfaces before creating my own, so I thought I'd try having the out-of-process object implement IShellExtInit. Seemed like a good fit.

Anyway, it appears that attempting to create/query interface for IShellExtInit fails for out-of-process COM servers. I found some additional evidence indicating that it's not possible because that particular interface lacks marshaling support.

Is there anything that can be done to fix that, short of defining my own similar interface (with the oleautomation attribute)? Alternatively, are there any other existing generic interfaces, that work out of process, for passing an IShellItemArray? Thanks for any info.

A PIDL is just a chunk of data, easy enough to pass to another process. — Jonathan Potter, Jan 01 '22 at 01:26

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 01 '22 at 05:50

0

IExecuteCommand is supported out-of-proc where IObjectWithSelection is the way the array is passed. Might only work on Win7 and later.

IDropTarget is also supported out-of-proc but it is more work (fake dropping a data object). It works back to at least WinXP if you care about that.

answered Jan 01 '22 at 05:50

Anders

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Do you know how to go about fake dropping a data object? Thanks. – Jan 03 '22 at 16:09
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20080724-00/?p=21483 – Anders Jan 03 '22 at 17:30

Way to get IShellExtInit to work out-of-process

1 Answers1