Writing shell extensions in Python and compiling

Question

I am trying to create a shell extension context menu and icon overlay. I have successfully registered and seen a context menu show up when right clicking and the menu clicks are correctly responding to the code when running the program through Python.

My issue is when I try to compile the Python code to an executable with cx_Freeze or py2exe. It builds the executable and running the executable creates a registry entry, but no menu shows up when right clicking after restarting explorer.exe.

I thought cx_Freeze or py2exe would be able to register the context menu or overlay and have it talk to the code within the exe. Do I need to make a dll file? I am not very familiar with com servers so anyone who has experience with shell extensions would be greatly appreciated.

I have more details if requested/needed.

Shell extension must be inproc COM server. It means you must create dll instead of exe. — Denis Anisimov
– Denis Anisimov, Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 18:16
@DenisAnisimov okay, so I have tried that with py2exe. The issue I ran into was how to register the inProc COM server to point to the created dll that py2exe made. Using the sample code here Python Shell it registers a local server32 key. — Kyle K
– Kyle K, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 16:38
"how to register" - what it means? You dont know how to write registration code or you dont know how to register your shell extension in the Windows? — Denis Anisimov
– Denis Anisimov, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 17:25
Well, I know the code to register a key that says InProc but I don't know if the dll that py2exe creates is correct. I am unfamiliar with how COM servers work. Do I create a dll of this sample code and create another python script to register an InProc key to point to the dll? — Kyle K
– Kyle K, Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 21:55
@DenisAnisimov I've looked at how tortoiseHG does their context menu and they have an InProc server pointing to a dll. Using a dll explorer the functions show up as DLLCanUnloadNow and DLLGetClassObject. Is this what I need to call my script? — Kyle K
– Kyle K, Commented Jul 4, 2014 at 15:28

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:14:43Z

1

I was able to get the context menu registered through a dll following the steps in this link. I ended up using py2exe for 2.7 and I am not sure if the setup they used is what fixed it or if I needed to use regsvr32 when registering the dll instead of the self registry executable. I also used a patched py2exe that is in the answer of the link

Link: Com server build using Python on 64-bit Windows 7 machine

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:14

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answered Jul 15, 2014 at 21:06

Kyle K

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