control panel items

[vishal1082]

how can i put each control panel item in a dropdown menu in context menu, WITH their icons

[ThatThatGuy]

give us a little bit long description of your problem....
and what do you exactly mean by control panel item...

[vishal1082]

Start Menu> Control Panel> All Items, i want all those items with their icons in a drop-down context menu, am i clear now? i have no idea how to do it, no base for it.

[GaryTexmo]

On an XP system, those items are actually files in a directory...

The ones for all users are stored in...
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu

And any special ones for a specific user are located in...
C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Start Menu

You could read this directory and load the items into your drop down that way. As for their icons, you might be able to get that from a File class, but I'm not sure as I've never looked into it.

Play around and let us know how you do :)

[GaryTexmo]

Correction, I was thinking of the FileInfo class, but that doesn't seem to have it anyways.

(I'd have edited this in, but it looks like the edit button goes away after a while, so sorry for the 2x post)

[vishal1082]

sry gary, i didnt find control panel items in that folder on XP systems, any other idea?, for icons i have a IconLib found on codeproject, give it a ico/exe/dll/lnk it will extract icons out of it, u can choose the icon u want, so if i find control panel items that way i can give file path as source and get icon out of it, the dll got a ToBitmap function to convert too.. heres the link to the code project article: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/IconLib.aspx

also i find this: http://www.technipages.com/windows-v...-commands.html but this way i will have to fill the dropdown my own..

[GaryTexmo]

Oops, my mistake! I was thinking of StartMenu... duh! Yea I'm not sure how to get the items out of the control panel. Even with the link you gave, that just opens it up, doesn't it?

I found a couple of things... maybe they will help?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._%28Windows%29
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...8VS.85%29.aspx

Also, for loading the icon, I have a simpler approach that may help you. I found the core code for this from a google search, then used it to create an extended file info class. You're more than welcome to it.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
...
    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    public struct SHFILEINFO
    {
        public IntPtr hIcon;
        public IntPtr iIcon;
        public uint dwAttributes;
        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 260)]
        public string szDisplayName;
        [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 80)]
        public string szTypeName;
    };
 
    class Win32
    {
        public const uint SHGFI_ICON = 0x100;
        public const uint SHGFI_LARGEICON = 0x0;
        public const uint SHGFI_SMALLICON = 0x1;
 
        [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr SHGetFileInfo(string pszPath,
                                    uint dwFileAttributes,
                                    ref SHFILEINFO psfi,
                                    uint cbSizeFileInfo,
                                    uint uFlags);
 
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern int DestroyIcon(IntPtr hIcon);
    }
 
    class ExtendedFileInfo
    {
        private FileInfo m_fileInfo = null;
        private Icon m_largeIcon = null;
        private Icon m_smallIcon = null;
 
        public FileInfo FileInfo
        {
            get { return m_fileInfo; }
        }
 
        public Icon SmallIcon
        {
            get { return m_smallIcon; }
        }
 
        public Icon LargeIcon
        {
            get { return m_largeIcon; }
        }
 
        public ExtendedFileInfo(string file)
        {
            LoadFileInfo(file);
        }
 
        public void LoadFileInfo(string file)
        {
            m_fileInfo = null;
            m_smallIcon = null;
            m_largeIcon = null;
 
            m_fileInfo = new FileInfo(file);
 
            SHFILEINFO shinfo = new SHFILEINFO();
 
            Icon theIcon = null;
 
            IntPtr himgSmall = Win32.SHGetFileInfo(file, 0, ref shinfo, (uint)Marshal.SizeOf(shinfo), Win32.SHGFI_ICON | Win32.SHGFI_SMALLICON);
            theIcon = Icon.FromHandle(shinfo.hIcon);
            m_smallIcon = (Icon)theIcon.Clone();
            Win32.DestroyIcon(shinfo.hIcon);
 
            IntPtr himgLarge = Win32.SHGetFileInfo(file, 0, ref shinfo, (uint)Marshal.SizeOf(shinfo), Win32.SHGFI_ICON | Win32.SHGFI_LARGEICON);
            theIcon = Icon.FromHandle(shinfo.hIcon);
            m_largeIcon = (Icon)theIcon.Clone();
            Win32.DestroyIcon(shinfo.hIcon);
        }
    }
 

[vishal1082]

let me see ur link, by the way your *simpler* way to get a icon is more complexed than what i got :P, that IconLib is just a Dll with already made methods, they work perfect i just have to write this thing:

 
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using System.Drawing.IconLib;
using System.Drawing.IconLib.ColorProcessing;
 
public static Bitmap RetreieveIcoInBitmap(string source, int index, int reso)
        {
            MultiIcon icon = new MultiIcon();
            icon.Load(source);
            IconImage returnval = icon[index][reso];
            return returnval.Icon.ToBitmap();
        }

by the way, there is one problem, this way we wont have 3rd party control panel items, like if someone installed nvidia drivers he gets nvidia control panel, but the way.. we doing it.. i dont think we will get that item

[GaryTexmo]

Well, "complexity" is a tricky term in your context... I'd be willing to bet that IconLib is a whole lot bigger than the code I linked ;) The usage would be about the same. Either way, just showing you an alternative.

I found a code project entry that looks like something you'd be interested in.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/appletengine.aspx

[vishal1082]

i dont understand anything of the link u gave.. i have seen it before but it goes over my head :\
i tried running the exe of the project but it gives some error and dont gets all the control panel items, and dont open some items when clicked, i m on windows 7 RC if u wanna know

[george666]

The official way is with Win32 Shell apis (see Win32 ng for C, C++ code, MS internal)