Microsoft KB Archive/135986

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HOWTO: Add a Custom Find Utility to the Start Menu

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Q135986

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK)

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SUMMARY
In Windows Explorer, you can have a program create a custom Find utility for the Start Menu. For an example, look at how The Microsoft Network adds a custom Find "On the Microsoft Network..." option to Windows 95 when the user signs up on The Microsoft Network.

MORE INFORMATION
The first step to registering a custom Find utility is to implement a shell context menu extension that supplies the menu item. The handler's IContextMenu::InvokeCommand member will be called whenever the user selects the custom Find utility on the Start Menu.

The context menu extension can be registered by adding some information for the handler to the following key in the registry:

   \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Explorer \FindExtensions \Static Under this key, your program needs to add a key, such as MyFind, for the context menu extension that contains the GUID for the context menu handler. Under MyFind, your program needs to create a second key "0" that contains the text of the menu item you want to include. Finally, under the "0" key, you need to create a third key "DefaultIcon" that contains the name of a .dll file that contains the icon you want displayed on the menu and the index of the icon in that .dll file.

To summarize, you need to add the following under the ..\FindExtensions\Static key in the registry:

   \MyFind =  \0 =  \DefaultIcon =  The context menu handler must also be registered normally as documented in the Win32 SDK.