WinMerge - context menu

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blobby
Posts: 19
Joined: 06 May 2011 16:38

WinMerge - context menu

Post by blobby »

Has anybody had any trouble getting WinMerge to appear on XYP's context menu?
It appears for me in MS Explorer, but not XYP. It's a 32-bit program, so it's nothing to do with 64-bit incompatibility or anything like that.
I am running XYP on Win 7 64-bit.
Thanks.
Thanks

Rick :beer:

nas8e9
Posts: 2232
Joined: 21 Jun 2008 14:50

Re: WinMerge - context menu

Post by nas8e9 »

blobby wrote:It's a 32-bit program, so it's nothing to do with 64-bit incompatibility or anything like that.
You're half right: WinMerge apparently installs *only* a 64-bit shell extension in 64-bit Windows versions even though it's a 32-bit app itself, an annoying habit it shares with UltraEdit among others.

Based on its manual, it may be possible to manually register its 32-bit shell context menu dll:
4. Shell integration

The installer enables shell integration when you choose the Enable Explorer context menu integration option in the Select Additional Tasks page. If you do not use the install program: you must register the shell integration DLL (ShellExtension*.dll) separately.
[Note] Note

Installing shell integration requires Administrator user privileges.

First, uninstall the current shell integration version by running unregister.bat from the WinMerge directory. Then restart the computer so that Windows completes the uninstall.

To register the shell integration DLL (ShellExtension*.dll), run register.bat from the WinMerge directory. We recommend that you restart the computer after installing shell integration, so that Windows updates all its references.
4.1. 64-bit shell integration

Starting with Version 2.6, WinMerge supports 64-bit Windows versions by including 64-bit shell integration. The WinMerge installer recognizes 64-bit versions of Windows and can install the correct shell integration version.

When you install shell integration manually from an archive file, the shell integration DLL is named ShellExtensionX64.dll. You can register and unregister this file by using register.bat and unregister.bat, as with 32-bit versions.
It's possible that you have to manually extract ShellExtension32.dll from its Zip archive first.

BTW: welcome to the forums!

Edited for clarity.

blobby
Posts: 19
Joined: 06 May 2011 16:38

Re: WinMerge - context menu

Post by blobby »

Sorry to be so long in replying.
But glad to report it does work. I couldn't find the 32-bit shell extension dll, nor any register.bat, so I went to an XP installation that had WinMerge installed. From its installation directory I copied ShellExtensionU.dll into the WinMerge installation directory on my Win 7 machine.
Then I ran regsvr32 to registrer it, and re-started XYP.
Voila, WinMerge now appears on XYP's context menu.
Thanks for your help, I hope this helps others too.
Thanks

Rick :beer:

zer0
Posts: 2676
Joined: 19 Jan 2009 20:11

Re: WinMerge - context menu

Post by zer0 »

Would you mind zipping that DLL and uploading as an attachment? That would help as some users may not have an XP installation to hand, thanks.
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