How to Install a Copy Hook shell extension for a UWP app
I’m packaging my classic Win32 application as a MSIX package to be distributed on MS Store.
The application includes a shell extension that implements `ICopyHook`. With the traditional installer, the shell extension DLL is registered under the `CopyHookHandlers` registry key.
With MSIX, the extension has to be declared in the AppManifest.xml file. However, per documentation [1], there is no way to add a copy hooker handler extension. The only handler types available are context menu and drag and drop.
This is an excerpt of my AppManifest.xml:
<com:Extension Category=”windows.comServer”>
<com:ComServer>
<com:SurrogateServer>
<com:Class Id=”cf1cbb8d-897c-45dc-b1a9-925201981d67″ Path=”VFSProgramFilesX64MyApplicationshellext.dll” ThreadingModel=”STA” />
</com:SurrogateServer>
</com:ComServer>
</com:Extension>
<desktop9:Extension Category=”windows.fileExplorerClassicDragDropContextMenuHandler”>
<desktop9:FileExplorerClassicDragDropContextMenuHandler>
<desktop9:ExtensionHandler Type=”*” Clsid=”cf1cbb8d-897c-45dc-b1a9-925201981d67″ />
</desktop9:FileExplorerClassicDragDropContextMenuHandler>
</desktop9:Extension>
I tried to manually register the shell extension DLL from the main app code, eg with `LoadLibrary`, `GetProcAddress` for the `DllRegisterServer` function and calling `DllRegisterServer`.
I get no error but the registry entries are not created.
Is there support for copy hooker shell extensions with AppManifest.xml? Is there a workaround?
I’m packaging my classic Win32 application as a MSIX package to be distributed on MS Store. The application includes a shell extension that implements `ICopyHook`. With the traditional installer, the shell extension DLL is registered under the `CopyHookHandlers` registry key. With MSIX, the extension has to be declared in the AppManifest.xml file. However, per documentation [1], there is no way to add a copy hooker handler extension. The only handler types available are context menu and drag and drop. This is an excerpt of my AppManifest.xml: <com:Extension Category=”windows.comServer”><com:ComServer><com:SurrogateServer><com:Class Id=”cf1cbb8d-897c-45dc-b1a9-925201981d67″ Path=”VFSProgramFilesX64MyApplicationshellext.dll” ThreadingModel=”STA” /></com:SurrogateServer></com:ComServer></com:Extension><desktop9:Extension Category=”windows.fileExplorerClassicDragDropContextMenuHandler”><desktop9:FileExplorerClassicDragDropContextMenuHandler><desktop9:ExtensionHandler Type=”*” Clsid=”cf1cbb8d-897c-45dc-b1a9-925201981d67″ /></desktop9:FileExplorerClassicDragDropContextMenuHandler></desktop9:Extension> I tried to manually register the shell extension DLL from the main app code, eg with `LoadLibrary`, `GetProcAddress` for the `DllRegisterServer` function and calling `DllRegisterServer`.I get no error but the registry entries are not created. Is there support for copy hooker shell extensions with AppManifest.xml? Is there a workaround? [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/schemas/appxpackage/uapmanifestschema/element-desktop9-extension Read More
