Calling Notepad.exe from Registry 'ShellNew'

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi all,

Just a quick question if I may:

I have a situation where I want to be able to create a new text document using
the 'New' entry on my right-mouse context menu. after a bit of experimentation I
find the syntax of:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew]
"Command"="D:\\WinNT\\System32\\Notepad.exe J:\\Untitled.txt"

will basically achieve what I want. If you try calling Notepad.exe WITHOUT the
trailing filename, this entry crashes Explorer.exe :-(

Of course 'Untitled.txt' does not exist, so when Notepad launches, you get the
error dialog of "Cannot find the Untitled.txt file. Do you want to Create it?"

Does anyone know of a method of suppressing this dialogue, so notepad just
opens, or alternately, a better syntax for the ShellNew command ?

Calvin.

PS: I actually asked this question a couple of weeks ago in the
microsoft.public.windowsnt.registry newsgroup, and nobody responded :-(

 

[lee]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi, Calvin, hope I can help. I'm thinking what you want to do
is something like this instead.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew]
"NullFile"=""

At least that's what's working here for the moment...
But I'm confused, don't you already have that right click
choice as a default item? I guess I don't understand why
you want something you should already have, unless you
want it in some different flavor? Active Desktop Update
not installed? It is here and I'm betting that this is an
added 'goody' of that?

I'm not surprised nobody answered, deep registry questions
often are ignored.

You might try this for a different syntax attempt.
"Command"="D:\\WinNT\\System32\\Notepad.exe %1"

D:??? Is that the right drive letter?

Lee

Calvin <nospam@spamcop.net> wrote in message news:<415c918e$1@duster.adelaide.on.net>...
> Hi all,
>
> Just a quick question if I may:
>
> I have a situation where I want to be able to create a new text document using
> the 'New' entry on my right-mouse context menu. after a bit of experimentation I
> find the syntax of:
>
> [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt]
>
> [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt\ShellNew]
> "Command"="D:\\WinNT\\System32\\Notepad.exe J:\\Untitled.txt"
>
> will basically achieve what I want. If you try calling Notepad.exe WITHOUT the
> trailing filename, this entry crashes Explorer.exe :-(
>
> Of course 'Untitled.txt' does not exist, so when Notepad launches, you get the
> error dialog of "Cannot find the Untitled.txt file. Do you want to Create it?"
>
> Does anyone know of a method of suppressing this dialogue, so notepad just
> opens, or alternately, a better syntax for the ShellNew command ?
>
> Calvin.
>
> PS: I actually asked this question a couple of weeks ago in the
> microsoft.public.windowsnt.registry newsgroup, and nobody responded :-(

 

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi Lee,

Thankyou for taking the time to respond.

I'll try the 'NullFile' option again - I'm sure I had the syntax right last
time, the result was nothing (ie: Notepad didn't launch, no error messages, no
nothing :-( )

Im answer to your question, yes the path is correct, notepad is located in the
D:\WinNT\System32\ folder. The machine I'm working on is configured to
approximate the layout as suggested in http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/bigdisk.htm -
with separate system and boot partitions.

The syntax I posted (as a .reg file) in my original message functions correctly
(ie: Notepad launches) but of course, it is looking for said file 'Untitled.txt'
and generates the error dialogue because it doesn't exist.

As I explained also in my last post using the syntax of "notepad.exe %1" crashes
Explorer - that is the desktop freezes up, then after the time out period, NT
realises the shell has died and restarts it, with the corresponding entry in the
Applications event log.

I'm afraid I have no intention of installing 'Active Desktop' - this supposed
add-on is a menace, and is responsible for more than half the cases of
instability I see in NT4 machines that I maintain. In fact, IE is also banned
from these machines, for exactly the same reasons (and the much more important
consideration that IE opens the machine up to innumerable security holes)

I'll have to take some time and have another play around. I was hoping someone
could point me in the direction of a good reference work on this topic of 'Shell
Extensions'. I've done a couple of Google searches and found some material, but
most articles still seem to leave out a lot of the details. Of course the
biggest problem with using a search engine to find information is knowing the
right question to ask 🙂 I was hoping somebody may have had more luck than me
finding this missing detail.

All the best.

Calvin.