Context Menu on Windows 11

General Discussion
7

I've added support for the Windows 11 context menu with Mp3tag v3.10d and would very much appreciate any feedback from Windows 11 users.

Implementation Details

For someone who is looking into implementing this for their own shell extension, here is an outline of the steps involved in adding support for the Windows 11 context menu:

  1. Implementing IExplorerCommand
  2. Creating a sparse AppxManifest.xml with <uap10:AllowExternalContent>true</uap10:AllowExternalContent> and linking to the shell extension DLL from <com:Extension Category="windows.comServer">
  3. Creating the sparse package via MakeAppX.exe
  4. Signing the sparse package via signtool.exe and a valid code-signing certificate
  5. Implementing a custom installer library which uses PackageManager from Windows.Management.Deployment to register the signed package
  6. Adding means to unregister the package during deinstallation

I've wasted a lot of time on this, so if you're stuck in one of the steps please let me know.