Home » Newsletter » July 2009

By V. Subhash

If you work in a big company or if your files are scattered over several server shares, then you may often find yourself copying the path or the name of a file in Windows Explorer. The steps involved are simple but it may seem cumbersome when you do it several times a day.

If I am right, then you will be happy to know that you can use some context menu (shortcut menu) options to reduce the number of steps. In Windows XP, there are no such menu options. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can hold the SHIFT key and then right-click on a file to get a "Copy as path" context menu option. Unfortunately, this option has some limitations. Here are some:

1. Requires the use of the keyboard (for pressing the august SHIFT key)
2. Remains only temporarily
3. Double-quotes the path
4. Does not translate the path for shortcuts

At the bottom of this page, you can download two simple utilities that will provide more user-friendly context menu options. I had originally created them for my colleagues. I have seen the menu extensions working in Windows XP and Windows 7. I expect the extensions to work in Windows Vista also. However, these utilities were a personal project and are not endorsed or supported by Gnostice. For this reason, I have decided to provide full source code so that you can compile the utilities yourself. Test them. If it works, use them.

When the utilities are installed properly, Windows Explorer will get four new context menu options. Two of the menu options will be available for files and the other two will be for folders. These options will allow you to copy the path or the name of the file or folder that you have right-clicked.

Windows Explorer Context Menu Options for Files

Windows Explorer Context Menu Options for Folders

How Do They Work

The download zip file contains two folders. Each folder contains a small application written in Visual Basic 6, a .reg installer file, a .reg uninstaller file, and a readme text file.

The first utility is simply called Copy Pathname (arg2cp.exe). It copies path of the selected file or folder to clipboard. The second utility is called Copy Filename (arg2cn.exe). It copies the name of the selected file or folder to the clipboard. These applications are meant to be invoked by Windows Explorer. If you try to invoke them independently, you will get nothing but an error message.

The .reg files are used in place of regular installation and uninstallation programs. The registry files create certain entries in the Windows Registry store. These entries cause Windows Explorer to provide the custom context menu options displayed above. When a user right-clicks a file or folder and selects one of the menu options, Windows Explorer will send the full path of the file or folder to the application (either arg2cp.exe or arg2cn.exe) specified by the relevant registry entry. The application processes the file/folder path information and copies the processed information to the clipboard.

Here are the contents of the .reg file installer of the first utility.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\Shell\Copy File Path\Command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Copy Pathname\\arg2cp.exe\" \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Copy Folder Path\Command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Copy Pathname\\arg2cp.exe\" \"%1\""

And, here are the contents of the .reg file installer of the second utility, which copies the name of the selected file or folder.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\Shell\Copy File Name\Command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Copy Filename\\arg2cn.exe\" \"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Copy Folder Name\Command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Copy Filename\\arg2cn.exe\" \"%1\""

You can copy these registry entries to Notepad and save the file with a .reg extension. You can use that file as your installer. Now, here is the VB6 source code for the arg2cp.exe.

Attribute VB_Name = "Module1"
Sub main()
  Dim strPathname As String

  strPathname = Command
  strPathname = Right(Command, Len(Command) - 1)
  strPathname = Left(strPathname, Len(Command) - 2)

  Clipboard.Clear
  Clipboard.SetText (strPathname)
End Sub

Here is the VB6 source code for the arg2cn.exe.

Attribute VB_Name = "Module1"
Sub Main()
  Dim strPathname As String
  strPathname = Command

  strPathname = Right(Command, Len(Command) - 1)
  strPathname = Left(strPathname, Len(Command) - 2)
  strPathname = Right(strPathname, Len(strPathname) - InStrRev(strPathname, "\"))
  
  Clipboard.Clear
  Clipboard.SetText (strPathname)
End Sub

There is no error-checking code because I trust Windows Explorer to pass file path information without any errors.

How To Install

• Download this zip file to a location on your computer hard disk. This zip folder contains two folders named Copy Pathname and Copy Filename.

  License and Terms of Use for this Software
  
   1. This software is provided "as is" without any warranty 
      or guarantee. 
      
   2. This software is not supported by anyone.
   
   3. You are free to use this software only if you are fully
      authorized to use it.
      
   4. If you use this software or if you authorize the use of 
      the product, then you should unconditionally agree to 
      bear all risks of doing so, solely on your own, without 
      any consequence to anybody else other than yourself.
   
   5. You should not distribute the software to others. You 
      should not claim the software or the supplied source 
      code as yours.
  
   6. You are free to modify the source code and distribute 
      the modified software and/or source code so long as you 
      do not claim any rights on the original software and 
      source code.
   
   7. If you do not agree to any of these conditions, you 
      should not keep, use, modify, or distribute the software 
      or the source code.
  
   

• Extract the folders from the zip file and copy them to C:\Program Files. Please be careful. The folders need to be created only under the C:\Program Files folder. If you wish to extract the folders to some other folder, then the installer .reg files need to be suitably modified first. Please be reminded that the new path in the .reg file need to be escaped properly. Mistakes can be costly. The installer .reg file that I have provided has been directly exported from my registry and is always expected to work, provided that you have correctly followed all my installation instructions.
• Navigate to the C:\Program Files\Copy Pathname or the C:\Program Files\Copy Filename folder.
• Right-click the installer .reg file to display the context menu and select the Merge option. This will launch Registry Editor.
• When Registry Editor prompts you to add the registry entries specified by the .reg file, select Yes, and later select OK to finish the installation.

How To Uninstall

To uninstall one of these context menu extensions, navigate to the C:\Program Files\Copy Pathname or the C:\Program Files\Copy Filename folder in Windows Explorer and run the Uninstall_Copy_Pathname.reg or Uninstall_Copy_Filename.reg file.

The Uninstall_Copy_Pathname.reg reg file contains the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\Shell\Copy File Path]


[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Copy Folder Path]

The Uninstall_Copy_Filename.reg reg file contains:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\Shell\Copy File Name]


[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Copy Folder Name]

These uninstaller .reg files delete the registry entries that were originally created by the installer .reg file and Windows Explorer will no longer show those additional context menu options.

Known Issues

Sometimes, you may see two redundant menu options for ZIP files. This may be because you have installed Compressed Folders utility that comes with Windows. Compressed Folders makes Windows Explorer treat ZIP files as folders. To avoid this awkwardness, you can either uninstall the menu extensions or uninstall Compressed Folders. To uninstall Compressed Folders, use the following command in the Run dialog box of the Windows Start menu.

regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll

Uninstalling Compressed Folder has another positive side effect - your file search operations become faster as it no longer searches inside zip files! However, to open zip files in the absence of Compressed Folders, you may wish to install a freeware zip utility such as IZarc and set it as the default application for file archive formats.

If you wish to restore Compressed Folders at a later point in time, enter the following commands, one after another, in the Run dialog box.

regsvr32 %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll
rundll32 zipfldr.dll,RegisterSendto

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Update

There have been few requests for adding more features to this utility. I would rather recommend Path Copy Copy project, which has more features.