Context menu item "windows cannot access the specified file"?

[petrus]

I'm trying to add mplayer.exe to the context menu, the old fashioned way via the registry:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Open with mplayer]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Open with mplayer\command]
@="mplayer.exe %1"

Works fine on Windows XP, but now on Windows 7, when right clicking a file and selecting open with mplayer i get:

"Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

Disabled UAC, gave file security permissions, the security center service is disabled... i have no idea what to do next.

Edited March 26, 2014 by petrus

[bphlpt]

@="mplayer.exe %1"

Don't you have to give the full path to "mplayer.exe"?

Cheers and Regards

[petrus]

Not if you put the file into the system32 folder, but that was just as an example, never mind the path.

[jaclaz]

Have you tried with "%L" instead of %1?

I.e.:

@="mplayer.exe" "%L"

jaclaz

[petrus]

I figured it out, the following works: @="mplayer.exe \"%1\""

[petrus]

And right away another problem, do system variables like %ProgramFiles% no longer work the same?

If i set the path in a .reg file as one of those it again longer works, like there is no path at all.

[bphlpt]

See here - http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-variables.html - for standard Windows Environment Variables definitions.

Cheers and Regards

[petrus]

It looks like Windows 7 environment variables in the registry must be of the type REG_EXPAND_SZ (hexadecimal).

That means "Command"=hex(2):22,25,57,49,4e,44,49,52,25,5c,5c,73,79,73,74,65,6d,33,32,22,00

instead of "Command"="%WINDIR%\\system32" (which does work on Windowx XP and 2000).

edit: except for icons, where you can still use "icon"="%WINDIR%\\system32\\shell32.dll,4" for example.

Edited March 27, 2014 by petrus