ContextIcons does not work in Windows 11

[Dhyfer1]

I am using the latest version of Windows 11 beta channel 22H2 and I have followed the instructions in the readme file (at least what I understood), but it is not working.

[Fleex255]

I'm afraid I don't have a Windows 11 copy to test with. But can you try using these icons? Not all image formats are supported, but saving as a 24bpp BMP with classic Paint seems to help.

[Dhyfer1]

Hi. Well, before your answer, I had already tried your icons but it still doesn't work. I have created a folder called shellicon and it is located in C:\shellicon.

Inside the folder are your icons (the file IconInjector.cpp must also be inside the folder? here I have my doubt) and I have registered the file ContextIcons.dll in the terminal with admin permission. Then I closed and opened the file explorer and also restarted it from the task manager, but your icons don't appear in the context menu.

I have done the above after a clean install of Windows 11, but no result.

I would also like to know if you know a way to create bmp files with transparency? There are programs that place an icon in the context menu and this icon is of two kinds: a .bmp file or an .ico file. What I want is to customize the 7zip icon that appears in the context menu, that icon is a bmp file without transparency located in the 7-zip.dll file, and I would like to change it for a custom icon but I don't know how to create a bmp file with transparency.

I have used Resource Hacker to decompile the 7-zip.dll file, and the bitmap file inside it can only be replaced with another bitmap file, it can't be replaced with an .ico file (if so it would be easier for me).

In addition to the above, I have tried to create a string value in the path HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\7-Zip (In this path already exists a default string value) The new string value has as name Icon and as value the path to a .ico file located in the Downloads folder, but I have not yet been able even in this way to replace the 7zip icon of the context menu by a .ico file.

I am not a programmer, I don't know anything about coding, I am not an advanced user. I hope you can help me

[Fleex255]

Thanks for trying. The only other quick check I can think of is whether the shell extension IconInjector appears in the shellex\ContextMenuHandlers Registry keys under e.g. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\* or HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory. If it's getting registered but not working, I'm afraid it's not supported on Windows 11. (It always was kind of a hack.) None of my devices support Windows 11, so unfortunately I can't test it myself.

As mentioned in my Super User answer, making the icons transparent seems to require some tricky code changes, or at least a tweak to IconInjector.cpp and the use of 256-color bitmaps. I'll leave this issue open in case someone with more knowledge of shell extensions can help.

[boromyr]

I also followed the procedure but the dll seems not to work in Windows 11 with the classic context menu. Are there any updates on possible compatibility with Windows 11 to date?