add a right click option to XP's Window's Explorer
 

I think this is closer to "programming" than "computers".

I'm trying to add a right click option to XP's Window's Explorer.
When I right click on a folder, in the pop-up menu I want "MP3_Playlist"
displayed. (this is working)

When I click on this option, I want Cmd or command.com to open in that
directory and run m3u.bat

I have tried to adapt this to do what I need.
http://www.americatoday.com/hanar/dosb.htm
---

A DOS lover's registry hack

(edited)

This registry hack adds an "Open DOS Box" command to the right-click menu
when highlighting folders or folder shortcuts. Clicking it opens an MS-DOS
box set to the directory and folder you clicked on!
Just double click on the REG file to initiate.

REGEDIT4

; Add the 'Open DOS Box' option, for folders and files

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\Shell\Open_DOS_Box]
@=3D"Open DOS &Box"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\Shell\Open_DOS_Box\command]
@=3D"COMMAND.COM /K CD %1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\Open_DOS_Box]
@=3D"Open DOS &Box"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\Open_DOS_Box\command]
@=3D"COMMAND.COM"

---

Here is what I have so far:

REGEDIT4

; Add the 'Make MP3 Playlist' option, for folders

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\Shell\MP3_Playlist]
@=3D"MP3_Playlist"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\Shell\MP3_Playlist\command]
@=3D"COMMAND.COM /C m3u.bat"

; [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\MP3_Playlist]
; @=3D"COMMAND.COM /C m3u.bat"

; [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\Shell\MP3_Playlist\command]
; @=3D"COMMAND.COM"

---
This is saved and run as m3u.reg

The menu option displays correctly but Windows does not understand that I
want to run a batchfile in the folder chosen.

The last two keys are REMed out because thay are file related, not folder
related, I believe.

This is the error message:

"This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this
action." etc.

Regedit shows the key but nothing is in the key.
The key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\Shell\MP3_Playlist]
just has "Default ... value not set"

The key
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\Shell\MP3_Playlist\command]
is the same. No values.

Well I guess this is the problem. What should be there?
Perhaps the @=3D is wrong?

Google gives NO hits on: regedit "@=3d"

Help...Please :-)

"@=" sets the default but I don't know what the "3D" is for. It happens to be hex ASCII for an equals sign but short of a misplaced texttohextotext (!) routine or several imports/exports with bad web tools I'm not sure why it would be there. You're working from a pretty common registry tweak but I don't think I've seen anyone with "3D" in it before.

Anyway, it's being eaten as an undefined variable by the registry merge. The quoted strings are being ignored. That's why your values are missing.

So I can stay in the correct context, do you have a m3u.bat file in every directory or one master that you want to operate on any selected directory?

BTW, you can add these from a folder's Tools menu.Tools->Folder Options. Switch to File Types, scroll to "Folder", and use the advanced button to add a new handler.

Bingo! cyrnel comes through again!

"BTW, you can add these from a folder's Tools menu.Tools->Folder Options. Switch to File Types, scroll to "Folder", and use the advanced button to add a new handler."

That worked fine.

m3u.bat is in the path and the system finds it.

This is the simple Winamp playlist maker:

if exist *.mp3 dir/b *.mp3 >MP3_list.m3u

Something I wrote before midnight actually worked? /me astonished

Might you want to check if an m3u exists and prompt before overwriting it? I'd be pissed if I accidentally boinked some carefully edited playlists.

Ah, but the beauty is nothing is carefully edited :-)
It's just so simple to create the list of mp3s in a dir.

If I want to hear a tune I click on it.
If I want to hear all the tunes on an album I click on the play list.
The tunes will play in alphabetical order unless they are numbered in front.
No problem with that.

I convert FLAC, OGG, etc. to mp3 because I have a CD player that can handle mp3.
The DVD player can also play mp3s.

At this time I don't need a fancier batch file to handle other audio files.

I should run the batch from a shortcut or pif because I don't need a window poping up for half a second :-)

Excuse for a faster video card. ;)

Or use something besides a batch.

I forgot the little I knew of Delphi 5 but I might open a book or 4 and see if I can do this simple task.