Shell Icon Overlay (C#)

c# c++ icons overlay shell-extensions
Sean picture Sean · May 9, 2009 · Viewed 8.5k times · Source

I need a method to create Icon Overlay's for Folders and Files in Windows XP/Vista, using C# or C++? Any examples?

Thanks, -Sean!

Answer

Stefan picture Stefan · May 9, 2009

Do not do this! Please, please don't.

You will break a lot of applications. Shell extensions must not use the .net framework (or any other similar framework), ever.

Here's an explanation why you must not do this.

Write your extension in C/C++, but not C#.

Update: Even though as of .NET4 it's possible to have multiple framework versions in one process, it is still not recommended and not supported by Microsoft! See this post about why:

[...] These problems led us to officially recommend against—and not support—the development of in-process shell extensions using managed code.

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