re: "Open With" Command Line Switches
Monday, September 7, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Windows Me Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by madman420
(15 messages posted)
Well the "Open With" feature and File Type handling in Windows ME (4.90.3000) sucks.
It turns out that it's actually easier to just hand-hack the registry than it is
to use any other interface that Microsoft provides.
Anyway, here is a nifty solution I came up with:
1) Find the associated program in:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\
qbasic.exe in my case. It may help to actually try to associate the application
the normal way first (shift-right-click file, Open With -> Choose Program, browse
for app, select always use this program...).
2) If you already associated the program w/ the file then there should be a "shell\open\command"
branch beneath it. If not, create it (right-click -> New -> Key). Now, in the "Default"
value of the "command" key, place the command to run when you select your
file by double-clicking or right-click ->Open:
d:\qbasic\qbasic.exe /h %1
You should try putting the %1 inside of double-quotes like this: "%1" ...that
will help your app open files and paths with spaces in them. However, with my old
16-bit MS-DOS app, it doesn't understand long filenames anyway. If you're just trying
to get /command /line /switches to work, skip steps 3) and 4), you're done.
3) Do the same thing as for "open", but now use an option (aka: verb) like "run".
So create this key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\qbasic.exe\shell\Run\command
4) Add this to the "Default" value in the "Run" (or whatever you called
it) key:
d:\qbasic\qbasic.exe /h /run %1
Following the same rules as with the "open\command" above. This adds another
option ("Run") to the right-click menu for the file.
The above stuff makes my context (aka: shortcut) menu give me both an "Open" and
a "Run" choice when I right-click a .BAS file in my win9x system:
With both the "Open" and "Run" scenarios above, Windows will use the name of the
registry key itself, or you can change the default value of the key to something
like: RUN IT RIGHT NOW!! ...but it's probably best to leave the actual registry
key's name simple - like 'open' or 'run' (without quotes).
HERE IS A .REG FILE TO DO THE WHOLE THING FOR YOU:
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\qbasic.exe]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\qbasic.exe\shell]
@="open"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\qbasic.exe\shell\open]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\qbasic.exe\shell\open\command]
@="d:\\qbasic\\qbasic.exe /h %1"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\qbasic.exe\shell\run]
@="Run"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\qbasic.exe\shell\run\command]
@="d:\\qbasic\\qbasic.exe /h /run %1"
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 |  | re: "Open With" Command Line Switches (madman420: Mon, Sep 7, 2009, 8:31 pm) |
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