Shell Extensions

This tab displays shell extensions installed on your system.

What's A Shell Extension?

A shell extension is a DLL module that extends Windows Explorer functionality. Most shell extensions just add new entries to the Windows Explorer context menu - the menu that appears when you right-click on a file or a folder. But, in fact, there a re a few types of shell extensions:

  1. Adds new entries to the Windows Explorer context menu that appears when you right-click a file, a folder or a drive;
  2. Adds new entries to the Windows Explorer context menu that appears when you drag and drop a file or a folder using the right mouse button;
  3. Displays a tooltip when you pause the mouse pointer over a file;
  4. Adds a new tab to the File Properties window;
  5. Adds a new entry to the Send To menu;
  6. Displays a custom icon for a file;
  7. Adds a new column to a folder view when exploring it in the Details mode.


Location

A shell extension adds a subkey/value with the extension's CLSID under the shellex subkey of a file type registry key:

  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT <filetype>\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers;
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT <filetype>\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers;
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT <filetype>\shellex\DragDropHandlers;
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT <filetype>\shellex\ColumnHandlers;
  • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT <filetype>\shellex\IconHandler.

The Disable Action

The disable action moves the extension's shellex subkeys to a temporary location.

The Delete Action

The delete action (depending on the selected options):

  • Deletes the extension shellex subkeys, deletes the extension CLSID from the key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \CLSID;
  • Deletes the extension file;
  • Unregisters the extension file (DLL module).

Note that if you delete the extension that displays an icon for a particular file type, you may end up with an incorrect icon displayed in Windows Explorer for that file type.

You may need to reboot Windows for the action to take effect.

Properties


Name Short description of the extension.
CLSID Class identifier (globally unique identifier - GUID) associated with the extension OLE class.
Publisher The developer (a company or a person) of the extension.
Program ID Programmatic identifier - human-readable identifier of the extension OLE class.
File A full path to the extension file.
File Version File version information. The information is retrieved from the file resources. Also includes product version information if it differs from the file version.
File Size File size in bytes.
File CRC32 Cyclic Redundancy Checksum (Check) of the file.
File MD5 Message Digest 5 of the file.
File Creation Date The date the file was created.
Location Registry entries of the extension.
Safe Indicates whether the item in a safe or in a blocked list. Yes - item is in a safe list. No - item is in a blocked list. N/A - items is not in a safe nor in a blocked list.
Status Indicates whether the item is enabled or disabled.
Affects The file system objects that the extension affects, i.e. file types, folders, drives.
Type The type of the extension:
  • Send To Location: adds an entry to the Send To menu;
  • File InfoTip: displays a tooltip;
  • Context Menu: adds an entry to the Windows Explorer context menu;
  • File Properties Sheet: adds a tab to the File Properties window;
  • Drag&Drop Context Menu: adds an entry to the right mouse button drag&drop context menu;
  • Folder View Column: adds a column to the folder view table;
  • File Icon: displays an icon;
System Indicates whether the item is a system item, i.e. originally shipped with Windows.
WARNING: Browser Sentinel does not always correctly differentiate third-party items and system items, use this property with care!