Our application currently implements a Shell Extension Context Menu by implementing the IContextMenu interface in a COM DLL.
On Windows 11, our context menu appears under "Show more options," and we want to return it to the top menu.
We started by implementing the new interface, IExplorerCommand, as Microsoft promised back compatibility up to Windows 7.
Later, Microsoft said that they added a manifest extension for keeping the "classic context menu" on Windows 11. It is something like:
<desktop9:Extension Category="windows.fileExplorerClassicContextMenuHandler">
<desktop9:FileExplorerClassicContextMenuHandler>
<desktop9:ExtensionHandler Type="Directory" Clsid="57fa2d12-d22d-490a-805a-5cb48e84f12a" />
...
It still requires creating a sparse package, signing, trusting, and registering it using the Package Manager API.
Advanced Installer 19.7 supports Windows 11 Context Menu, but only for handlers executing an external EXE.
I could be wrong, but I don't see any option for declaring a Context Menu class hosted in a DLL.
Is it possible at all?
Should we go the long way and generate a full sparse package?